WWE: In defense of The IIconics’ Women’s Tag Team Title run

The IIconics’ WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship run has come to an end, and it’s time to look back and appreciate that run in a complete retrospect.

Last Monday on the go-home Raw before this Sunday’s SummerSlam Pay-Per-View, The IIconics defended their WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships in a Fatal Four Way Elimination Tag Team Match. Before their titles were eventually won by Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross, Peyton Royce and Billie Kay were the first ones to be eliminated. A loss that some critics may call a bittersweet, anti-climactic reign to a somewhat anti-climactic title reign.

If nothing else, the abrupt end of their title reign allows us to look back at their reign in retrospect and judge it in total. Unfortunately, there’s not much to look back on, but that’s also not their fault. Like many WWE Superstars, The IIconics have been victims of Creative booking, but truth be told, in terms of character work at least, they did what they did to make their reign work.

Their reign as WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions were off to a rocky start. Mind you, a shocking title win at WrestleMania is big, but their win was overshadowed by The Boss ‘N’ Hug Connection’s abrupt end to their inaugural title reign, as well as alleged drama concerning them “laying on the floor [complaining backstage].” Then, of course, there’s the whole thing about Sasha Banks not being in the ring since Mania for personal reasons.

Every news piece coming out of the Women’s Tag Team Championship match was about everything except the new WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions.

The first SmackDown Live for the new champions wasn’t so hot either, as they defended their belts successfully in a quick, uninteresting squash match against “The Brooklyn Belles.” Then, they just disappeared.

It became a running trend for Royce and Kay to disappear for weeks at a time, return briefly to lose a match to either Person A in a singles match, or Persons B and A in tag team competition. They’d disappear again, maybe get a squash match win, disappear again, set up a feud where a match would get announced for the next week and then cancelled at the last minute, disappear again, etc.

This persisted for 120-days until, well, they lost the titles on Raw. It would be an understatement to say their title reign was unspectacular and again, that is neither Peyton Royce’s or Billie Kay’s fault. As reported by Tom Colohue of Sportskeeda fame, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon never wanted to introduce Women’s Tag Team Championships and therefore had neither a plan nor desire to feature them on television. The IIconics’ reign is a direct victim to that booking.

However, The IIconics found ways to make the most of their title reign by doing what they did best: character work.

While they were denied time in the ring as wrestlers to, well, wrestle, they were given plenty of backstage segments to highlight their promo work. Sometimes, those segments made TV. Other times, they were exclusive to YouTube or elsewhere on social media, but wherever they were given time to shine, they shined. Character work was always their strong suit and made them a hilarious, memorable fixture of the main roster. Even when given little TV time, this was no different.

As characters, they were always entertaining enough to build a fanbase and as conniving heels made you want to see them get their just desserts. Unfortunately, we never got that last part, but seeing how strong their work was for just a few hundred-thousand people who decided to tune in online managed to endear a lot of audiences.

While it doesn’t automatically render their title reign better than we give it credit for, it’s hard to call it downright terrible when it gave The IIconics consistent time to deliver great promos and managed to stand out in our minds despite rarely being featured in the ring. That’s saying something.

Hopefully, now that the straps are off of their shoulders, this isn’t the last we see of The IIconics; either in the ring or backstage with microphones.