The IInspiration (fka as The IIconics) were indeed contacted for the 2022 Royal Rumble.
The 2022 women’s Royal Rumble match featured a number of returning superstars after the roster was left thinned out from several mass releases in 2021. Among those contacted were the former Peyton Royce and Billie Kay.
During a new episode of their Off Her Chops podcast, the former WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions confirmed they received a call to return less than a year after being released.
Jessie McKay: “We did get asked to do the Royal Rumble. It would be eight or nine months after our release.”
Cassie Lee: “It was a little bit too fresh, I think. We certainly weren’t ready to go back into that. It was too soon.”
Kay: “Too much at that time. I definitely loved getting asked.”
Lee: “It was nice to be asked, but I also thought it wasn’t a guarantee. So I was like, ‘Eh, I’m not gonna be the chump who says yes,’ and they’ll be like, ‘Oh, we don’t need you anymore.’ ‘Okay, I will just go f*ck myself.'”
McKay: “Yeah, because the release, that took a while to kind of heal from that.”
Lee: “Do you feel healed now?”
McKay: “I do. It took a hot minute. I’d say it took a year.”
Lee: “That was our dreams coming crashing down in front of our eyes without any sort of control. So, yeah, it takes time.”
Fightful Select reported after the 2022 Royal Rumble that Lee and McKay were among those contacted despite being under contract to IMPACT Wrestling. IMPACT would’ve had to have signed off on the appearance, which they did for then-Knockouts World Champion Mickie James.
The IInspiration announced in April 2022 that they were stepping away from the ring. Lee went on to have her first child with Shawn Spears, while McKay is currently expecting her first child.
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