A question many fans have asked over the last few weeks and months are ‘why has WWE not seemed Iconic enough?’.
Well, it might not be a pressing question, but it does allow me to discuss where one of WWE’s most entertaining acts have gone.
Billie Kay and Peyton Royce (The IIconics) have not been on a wrestling show, including live events, since November 2019 and were also missing from the Royal Rumble pay-per-view, a time when WWE especially searches for a lot of female wrestlers.
The IIconics were in WWE NXT from 2015 until 2018, and debuted on the 10th of April 2018 episode of SmackDown Live. Within a year they won the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships at Wrestlemania 35 defeating the Boss ‘n’ Hug Connection (Sasha Banks and Bayley). They did not have many matches but during their title reign they have successfully defended their titles against enhancement talents, Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross, and the Kabuki Warriors (Asuka and Kairi Sane).The pair lost their WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship titles to Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross in a fatal 4-way match on the 5th of August episode of Monday Night Raw, a match which also included the tag teams of Fire & Desire (Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville), and the Kabuki Warriors. This could also be due to the wedding of Peyton Royce and Ron Arneill (AEW Star Shawn Spears), to give the newlyweds time to go for their honeymoon.
The duo has not wrestled much since. On the 12th of September episode of WWE Main Event, they had a match against Dana Brooke and Sarah Logan. In October, they were quietly drafted to the WWE Raw roster in the 2019 WWE Draft. On the 28th of October episode of Monday Night Raw, they had a match against Charlotte Flair and Natalya. Their final appearance was a match on the 18th of November episode of Monday Night Raw against Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair. The IIconics interrupted, pointing out how they’d been left off the Raw women’s team for Survivor Series, which eventually led to the match.
While they have never been regular wrestlers on the main roster, having matches sporadically, they were great on the mic and were great obnoxious heels, and the fans have been missing them and are looking forward to their return.
Last week Peyton Royce tweeted congratulating the four women who were part of the fatal 4-way match to determine the Number 1 contenders for the Smackdown Women’s title against Bayley, which was won by Carmella.
Several sources make the speculation that over the past half a year, WWE has been diminishing the on-screen roles of those WWE stars whose partners have been involved in controversial actions: Naomi had a diminished role after Jimmy Uso was arrested; Renee Young hardly featured on WWE shows and was only on WWE Backstage, a FOX production, after Dean Ambrose leaving; could Peyton Royce also possibly facing such an action due to Ron Arneill leaving and joining AEW?
If this speculation is indeed true, then WWE is losing out on a lot of talent by taking it out on their partners. Naomi had a good run in WWE SmackDown Live, before the move to Fox, and the crowd were behind her character. Renee Young is arguably the best commentator in WWE and removing her from the commentary team has impacted the standard in the recent months, however she is doing a great job as the host of WWE Backstage. Similarly, Peyton Royce and Billie Kay were a great tag-team and were really great while cutting promos. WWE should bring them back soon, but there has been talks of bringing some change in their characters.
A WWE fan had recently asked Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer regarding the absence of the duo and whether they would be back anytime soon to which he responded
“I asked about them a few weeks ago. A decision was made to take them off TV. Maybe repackaging, but the idea was they’d be back.”
Dave Meltzer’s tweet does indicate that the duo is not injured and that the reason behind them being pulled from shows and live events is due to a possibility of them being repackaged. However, there was no mention of a possible return date for them.
Whatever the case may be, there is a huge fan base that is eagerly awaiting the duo to return to in-ring wrestling. We all hope that they return soon and make 2020 IIconic.
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