For those who may have missed it, there were two surprising releases today: Lance Cade by WWE, and Karen Angle by TNA.

Cade, who was aligned with world heavyweight champion Chris Jericho and played a major role in the finish of Jericho’s fantastic ladder match against Shawn Michaels at the No Mercy pay-per-view on Oct. 5, was getting the biggest push of his career. It now appears that Michaels brutalizing Cade with repeated chair shots last week on Raw was an angle to write out Cade.

I wasn’t sold on Cade ever becoming a main-eventer, but I thought he was perfectly suited to be the Cowboy Bob Orton to Jericho’s Roddy Piper. Cade wasn’t bad when given a chance to cut a promo, he had a good look and he was decent in the ring. He also had the benefit of having been trained by Michaels. It seems odd that WWE would abruptly let him go.

Angle being released is one that perhaps we should have seen coming. She and Kurt reportedly are going through a divorce, but the two of them were going to try to continue working for the same company. Apparently, that wasn’t working out. If TNA felt the need to send one of the Angles packing, the choice was obvious.

Speaking of seeing things coming, the Angles' marriage is the latest of many in wrestling to end in divorce when both parties were contracted talent. When Karen first entered TNA in the summer of 2007, I wrote: "Kurt might want to talk to Randy Savage, Marc Mero, Diamond Dallas Page, Kevin Sullivan and Steve McMichael about how things worked out for them when they brought their wives into wrestling." When I interviewed Kurt at the Impact Zone last March and asked him about the subject, he said: "Thank God, it’s actually brought us closer together. We spend more time together, and it actually did the opposite of what it’s done in the past to others. It’s been great."

Oops.

I thought Karen initially was good as a heel, but she became overexposed on television. Her “Karen’s Angle” interview segments on TNA Impact were OK overall, although some of them were not good. She really wasn’t a major character anymore, so her departure isn’t a big loss – although I’m sure Jeremy Borash is probably taking it pretty hard.

Wouldn’t it be something if Vince McMahon decided to sign Karen as a way to stick it to Kurt, who in the past has had some not-so-flattering things to say about his former employer? I could see McMahon scripting a story line in which he and Karen are having an affair, much like he did with Rena “Sable” Mero.

TNA and Johnny Devine also parted ways today, although it reportedly was Devine who asked to be released, as his career in TNA wasn’t really going anywhere. I have never been a huge fan of Devine as a character, but he is a good worker. TNA probably could have done more with him, as he showed a lot more personality on TNA’s YouTube clips than he ever did on television.

Note: I’m still working on an entry looking at last night’s Raw. That post will be up later.