The duo currently known as Cassie Lee and Jessie McKay first came across my radar when they worked as a singles acts in the mid-2010s in independent promotions like Shimmer and Shine (Lee mostly went by KC Cassidy at the time). I didn’t become a fan if the two Australian wrestlers.until 2016-2017, when WWE — where they were worked as Peyton Royce and Billie Kay — paired them up in NXT more than a year after signing the real-life friends.
With the birth of the team they eventually dubbed The IIconics, Lee/Royce and McKay/Kay gained a lot of fans. That led to a big WWE Women’s Tag title win at WrestleMania 35 and a lengthy reign, but mostly they got over in interviews and promos. Like this one from after being eliminated from the Royal Rumble, where Kay makes Cathy Kelley break before they’ve even officially started, then delivers the iiconic “did you go to journalism” line*… and that’s before she makes her partner break with her signature delivery of “you’ve gotta be JOKING me”.
As The IIconics or The IInspiration, the name they’ve adopted after WWE released them in 2021’s post-WrestleMania cuts (which happened after splitting them up out of nowhere and never doing anything with them as solo acts), and which with they became the only team to hold both the WWE Women’s and TNA Knockouts Tag champs, Cassie and Jessie have cut a lot of funny promos and done tons of entertaining interviews over the years. But I hadn’t seen one that made me laugh as hard as the one above… until today (May 4).
Lee & McKay were surprisingly signed by AEW earlier this year. I say surprising because while they’re okay wrestlers, their strength is in character-work. Historically, character-forward acts only do well in Tony Khan’s promotions if they’re good-to-great in the ring in addition to being compelling or hilarious.
And when The IInspiration were squashed in their AEW television debut back in March, critics of their signing only scratched their heads harder. However, Khan’s plan was apparently to use Lee & McKay in his “minor league” promotion Ring of Honor while allowing them to represent the brand being their entertaining selves all over the world.
That strategy lead to their April Princess Tag title win in Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling… and their loss of those titles today to Miu Watanabe & Rika Tatsumi at TJPW’s YES! Wonderland show this morning. And that loss led to an interview that rivals their best work from the past.
First of all, Cassie was dehydrated from the lack of water provided by the promotion after their 18 hour flight. They were then peppered with streamers during their entrance. And to top it off, Watanabe & Tatsumi hit Jessie with their bottoms seven or eight times before grabbing her leg and trying to end her career, which she didn’t appreciate one bit.
As a result, The IIconics have some new rules to lay down along with their demand for a rematch for the Princess Tag belts: cold, drinkable water, the banning of streamers, and approval over their opponents “move lists” because needs “to know what’s in their repertoire”.
Is The IInspiration’s latest IIconic, or did I get a little too carried away? Let us know down below, along with any other thoughts you have about Cassie Lee & Jessie McKay’s act in 2026.