Cassie Lee (Peyton Royce) and Jessica McKay (Billie Kay) a.k.a IInspiration (formerly The IIconics) were admittedly relieved to be released from WWE together.
Lee and McKay catch up with Cageside Seats to announce their new tour dates. During the interview, the former WWE Women’s Tag Team champions open up about their support systems in the aftermath of their WWE departures.
“We love each other so this is fine to say,” Cassie tells Cageside Seats’ Shakiel Mahjouri. “If one of us got released and the other wasn’t, it would be so much harder. We’re kind of glad that it happened together.”
“100 percent,” McKay chimes in. “That’s the first thing I said to her. I said, ‘I’m so sorry.’ I was crying on the phone. I said, ‘I’m so sorry for us, but I’m so glad you got released with me.’ Because otherwise, it would have just been a nightmare. But that's just us. Our journeys have always been together and we’re onto the next chapter of our lives and we’re just so excited to hit the ground running.”
Lee and McKay have not competed in-ring since their WWE release in April due to visa issues. The Australian wrestlers explain how it felt to be locked down in the U.S. with no work.
“You said it’s lonely and it really freaking is,” Lee says. “To lose your job in a pandemic is one thing. And then to not be able to go home and be around your support system and family and friends and loved ones. That’s a whole other thing. To be stuck in a country where you can’t work and can’t do anything, we literally only have each other. Imagine all of that and only one of us were let go.”
“I didn’t even want to think about it,” McKay adds. “Everything happens for a reason and we’re just so excited for the rest of our lives together.”
Lee also reveals that she had asked for an NXT run just prior to the WWE release.
“I actually asked to go back,” she share. “And it was kind of being looked into is what I was told. And then I got released.”
Both members of IInspiration reveal that a face turn or potential rivalry with The Bella Twins, Brie Bella and Nikki Bella, is something they had hoped to explore during their time with WWE.
“We would have loved to explore what it would be like to be the good guys,” Lee explains. “But on top of that when we kind of came back, we had a little bit of a hiatus, and we came back early 2020 and we were kind of in the championship story. I wish we got to stay in that a bit longer because that was my favorite era of us. I think it was our best combination of who we are as people and as characters and then the fact that we could still go in championship matches, as well. I would have liked to have taken more time with that.”
“Yeah, I would have loved to,” McKay says. “There were talks of us feuding with The Bellas when we won the championships. I would have loved to do that. I think that would have put us on a whole different level, being able to work with both of those extraordinary women. So that’s always something that is bittersweet that it never happened. Yeah, but just the thought that that was a possibility is still really cool.”
IInspiration recently announced tour dates for October and November.
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