Former WWE Stars The IIconics, Now The IInspiration, Explain Why They're Joining Impact Wrestling
Cassie Lee and Jessica McKay, formerly known as Peyton Royce and Billie Kay of The IIconics in WWE, will officially debut for Impact Wrestling this weekend when they challenge Havok and Rosemary for the Impact Knockouts Tag Team Championships at Bound for Glory. The pair was unceremoniously cut by the WWE back in April despite being fan favorites, and in a new interview with Busted Open Radio, they explained why they chose to join Impact over any other major promotion.
"Cass and I, we spoke about this a lot where the possibilities where were we could end up. It really came down to Impact having such an amazing tag team division, first and foremost. That's what we wanted to do and that's where we feel like we fit the best. When we made the decision to join Impact, it just felt right. After WWE, having that feeling of, 'this feels really good,' was so important for us. We've heard nothing but incredible things about Impact. We're super excited to join the locker room and be a part of it," McKay said (h/t Fightful).
"That is our complete focus," Lee added. "We're going for the Knockouts Tag Team Championships and that's been Jess' and my dream for as long as I can remember. We want to create this women's tag team division that is the best. I really feel that the Knockouts division is up there with the best women's division across all platforms. I feel honored to be a part of that and to be part of a tag team division like that, it means everything to Jess and I."
When they were The IIconics, WWE opted to split the pair up just before the WWE Draft and move McKay over to SmackDown. Lee revealed in an interview with Chris Van Vliet earlier this year that she blamed herself for the company's decision to break the two up.
"So I have never told anyone this and I hope Jess isn't upset with me for saying this, but I wanted to go singles," Lee said (h/t Wrestling Inc.) "There was just things I wanted to tick off of my bucket list as a singles competitor. I vocalized that to Jess in January last year. I didn't do anything about it, I just told her where I was at, I didn't try and get us broken up or something like that. It was during the PC era and Jess was out for a week, I had this random singles match, I don't even remember who it was against. Vince loved it, he said to me 'you're so good, what are we doing?' I just said to him 'look. If it is possible in future plans, I'm not saying right now, but in the future I would like to see what I can do on my own.' I am so comfortable with Jess, we can conquer the world together. But I wanted to see what I can do for myself. So many people were like 'why did they break you up? It was so stupid.' I'm like I feel like it's my fault, because I wanted to push myself and see what I was capable of. But that might have been the worst decision that I made, because nothing ever happened."