The IInspiration (The IIconics in WWE) spoke recently about their time in 2021 when released from WWE and making the decision to go to IMPACT. The duo Peyton Royce (Cassie Lee) and Billie Kay (Jessie McKay) were released by WWE after six years with the company.
After their time with WWE was over, they confirmed that they were a package deal and wanted to remain together wherever their next venture would take them. They joined IMPACT Wrestling later that year and they rebranded themselves as The IInspiration. They became Knockouts World Tag Team Champions during their first match and debut at the 2021 Bound For Glory event.
In a new interview with Nick Hausman of Haus of Wrestling, McKay spoke about why they chose to go with IMPACT when they did.
“It just felt like the right step to make. It was something that we had spoken about together. There are a lot of things that have to come together to make something work, and IMPACT just came together. It was the right time for us, it felt good, we liked their schedule, it being a little bit more relaxed because we had been at home out of the wrestling bubble for a little bit and we knew that we wanted to try and maintain that balance. We had known all of the girls in the locker room, never worked them inside of the ring so it was just an exciting time for us. We also just had a fun time rebranding and evolving our characters. I remember Cass came over one day and I said, we can do this and this and this and it was kind of like getting the ball rolling, and she’s like, oh, what about this? It was just really fun. We had kind of lost that fun and we hadn’t teamed up for so long, so it was kind of like re-sparking our love for tag team wrestling at the moment.” (Fightful)
After just over six months with the company, the team and best friends decided to take a step away from the ring and professional wrestling. Since then, Lee has gone on to have her first child with Shawn Spears from AEW and McKay is currently pregnant with her first child. There last match in IMPACT was at Rebellion in April 2022 where they dropped the titles to The Influence (Madison Rayne and Tenille Dashwood). The duo are about to start their third season of their podcast.
Lee has stated that she is starting to train for the ring again. She wants to continue with a tag team.
You can view the interview in full below.
