WWE: Giving The IIconics the appreciation they truly deserve

The IIconics were left off WWE Survivor Series yet again, so let’s take a moment to give this duo the appreciation they truly deserve.

WWE is a company full of so many amazing female wrestlers and sometimes superstars can get lost in the field. Being left off the Survivor Series team for the second year in the row, I started to think about whether WWE appreciates Billie Kay and Peyton Royce of The IIconics. If they don’t, then I will!

When Australia’s Jessie McKay and KC Cassidy made their NXT debut in 2015, there didn’t really seem to be anything special about them. Both had been wrestling for a number of years before their debut training and traveling the world. Even with all this behind them, compared to the others on NXT then, like Charlotte Flair, Carmella, and Sasha Banks, they didn’t look like superstars and nobody would’ve thought that, only a few years later, they’d become one of the strongest female duos getting heat left, right, and center.

For this Australian duo (who had been to the same school), a change of name to Billie Kay and Peyton Royce, character and the creation of the Iconic Duo was all they needed to become those stars. However, after a strong run in NXT as major heels, they seem to have faded into the background and are not given the respect they deserve!

Even if you hate The IIconics (which means that they’re doing their job right), you have to appreciate how much work they’ve put into becoming the amazing wrestlers they are and how much they’ve improved over the years. They not only put the women’s division on notice with the small things they do but by getting crowds to hate them, putting their character at the forefront of matches and making their opponents look good.

Billie Kay and Peyton Royce aren’t just amazing, they’re: IICONIC and this is why!

Literally Years of Chemistry

Looking at the two of them, it isn’t surprising to hear that the two women have been good friends for a long time. Although not friends in high school (instead, having a rivalry over who was the biggest wrestling fan), it was Peyton joining PWA (Pro Wrestling Australia) in 2009 that helped this friendship to blossom. From then, it seemed only natural to put them together in a team because this chemistry shows.

Unlike a lot of tag teams, it’s this authenticity that makes them stand out and adds even more layers to them as people and wrestlers. For some people, the whole idea of ‘best friends’ and the way the two walk down the ring might seem soppy, but it can even warm a cynic’s heart.

Even watching them both seeing their parent’s reaction at WWE Super Showdown just melts your heart because you’re seeing real friends going through a journey to do something they’ve always dreamed about. You kind of wish you had a friend like that. It also makes them unrivaled in the ring when they wrestle together.

It’s almost as if they can read each other’s minds and predict what the other is going to do and it seems effortless. If you didn’t look carefully and know their story, you’d think they were psychic. Really, it’s just the effects of years of friendship and hard work. Even as heels, it’s hard not to love seeing them together and interacting because it’s just damn natural. I don’t think people appreciate it enough.

SINGAPORE – JUNE 27: The IIconics dramatic exit after losing a match to the Kabuki Warriors /

Excellent Character Work

As soon as The IIconics music hits, you know exactly what to expect from the duo. The pair will come out and cut a promo in their thick, Australian accents insulting not only the wrestlers in the ring but also whichever city they’re in. Cue loud boos throughout the arena, which is rare especially for female talent. They also fill a much-needed role in the WWE women’s division that we’ve not seen in a while. Billie and Peyton are the villains that the crowds love to hate and they embrace it like nobody else.

From the moment they step onto the ramp until the moment they leave, they are the heels. When they’re in a match, their personalities form the core of their moves and tells a story. It’s even the small things they do from the way they hold the microphone, to the way they link fingers walking down the ring and how they present themselves in the ring. Billie and Peyton are two strong women who have built a team on friendship and knowing that they’re better than anyone else in the division.

The IIconics have cemented themselves as the perfect heel team from their entrances and it’s a testament to their character work that they can make themselves so despicable when they’re probably really nice people in real life.

“You’ve gotta be JOKING me!”

Even when the pair aren’t in the ring, they are pure comedy gold and have literally become not only living, breathing memes but funnier than a lot of comedians nowadays.

If they’ve been left off the television or not given as much time as other wrestlers (which happens a lot), they do what all good wrestlers in WWE do: they make use of WWE online. In particular, Billie Kay seems to shine in the backstage segments and has made for some great Twitter clips from ‘Hey Kayla!”, “You’ve got to be joking me,” and, as a journalist, my favorite being “Do you have a journalism for that?” You can even sometimes see the character of Peyton Royce fall sometimes when she realizes just how funny her best friend is.

Not only does it make them more relatable and #InternetQueens, it just makes their characters even better. Sometimes it’s better when they lose matches because the fallout is nothing you could write. There are excuses, meltdowns, and screaming fits. There aren’t many people in the business who are willing to take the mic out of themselves and let loose but still look fabulous and badass. It’s the perfect combination and it makes everything they do even better.

Underappreciated In-Ring Work

Sometimes The IIconics personalities outshine a really basic fact: the two are very good wrestlers.