In a recent interview Scott Fishman did for TVInsider.com with The IIconics, Billie Kay & Peyton Royce share their thoughts on Emma (Tenille Dashwood) being proud of them, The origin of their friendship, Facial expressions & body language, Their dream match at Evolution, Thoughts on Women’s Tag Team Titles, and the negativity of social media.
Their thoughts on Emma being proud of them debuting on Smackdown:
Billie Kay: “That means a lot. She paved a lot of the way for Australians and for women’s wrestling. We just hope we are making her and the women before us proud. We just hope we’re able to pave more of the way behind us who are coming in after us.”
Traveling on the road with each other all the time and being able to depend on one another. How is it when they’re by themselves?
Billie Kay: “Peyton has been away in Australia for the past week. So, I had to travel by myself for the first time. And it was only 72 hours. Not even that long, but the amount of anxiety that I had of being on my own and not having her by my side. I didn’t realize until I was by myself. I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, where is Peyton? I need her.’ ”
The origin of their friendship:
Peyton Royce: We actually went to high school together. We didn’t like each other. We had an unspoken rivalry of who was the biggest wrestling fan in the school. When I found PWA (Pro Wrestling Australia), the wrestling school back home, I found it because Billie was on a poster. I was like, ‘I went to school with her!’ This was the school I wanted to learn my craft, and she was on the poster. She made me think, ‘Okay, I guess I can get to know her.’ ”
Billie Kay: “As soon as we spoke and had our first training session together, we were instantly best friends. We’ve known each other for 10 years now, so we’ve done a lot of growing up together. We’ve had the same goals forever. We’ve been going in the same direction, pushing each other and being there for each other along this time.”
Facial expressions and body language. Improv or natural?
Billie Kay: “It’s all 100-percent real, hands-down. Every reaction, emotion and facial you see we do in day-to-day life. That’s where we pull our inspiration from our real life and our real-life interaction. I love that we can say that. Of course, we get inspired by pop culture. We love Total Divas and Total Bellas. We are big Jersey Shore fans. Anything competition based. Our favorite characters we see on TV, we are influenced by them. I feel like things come out naturally. She’ll say something, and I’ll laugh like Chandler from Friends. It’s natural.”
Dream match at Evolution?
Peyton Royce: “I’m just going to speak on behalf of Billie here too, but it would be a three-way tag team match with the IIconics versus LayCool versus the Bella Twins.”
Billie Kay: “I’m going to add another team in there. Natalya and Beth Phoenix.”
Women’s Tag Team Titles:
Billie Kay: “One hundred percent yes. We have always spoken, and quite publicly, that we want to pioneer that. We want to be part of this era of the women’s tag team division.”
Peyton Royce: “That has been our dream even before we got to the Performance Center. We want to have a part of it when it does happen. I feel it will happen in time, so we want to have a positive influence on that.”
Dealing with the negativity on social media:
Peyton Royce: “If it wasn’t for Billie, I would really struggle. Sometimes I can’t even go on Twitter for days because I just feel it’s negative comment after negative comment. I understand that I put myself out there, and everyone is allowed to have their own opinion and say what they want, but Billie reminds me I have to take a step back.”
Billie Kay: “Sometimes I go into mom mode. Being a little bit older, I get more protective of Peyton. I feel like I always have to watch out for that because we do have thick skin. Being in this business you have to have thick skin. But in saying that, you do get a lot of negativity. That’s just how it’s going to be.”
Peyton Royce: “There is the negative aspect of social media, but there is a lot of positivity that comes from it too. Like my favorite thing in the world is seeing someone wearing our Iiconics shirt. Billie and I try to highlight that on our Instagram story. That makes me genuinely smile. That makes me so happy to see.”
Billie Kay: “We wouldn’t be us if we didn’t have our fans and them supporting us too. I think that is a good way of looking at it. We have so much positivity, and that definitely outweighs the negativity.”
When they got a tweet from The Rock:
Peyton Royce: “Oh, my goodness. That was years ago, and we are still talking about it.”
Billie Kay: “I’m still talking about it. We are best friends though because he tweeted that emoji to me. So, I’m pretty sure we are friends.”
‘IIconics’ Duo Peyton Royce & Billie Kay on Their Bond and Taking the WWE Journey Together
