TNA star Cassie Lee, formerly known as Peyton Royce in WWE, has opened up about the differences in the creative process between the two promotions, praising TNA for the trust and freedom it affords its talent. Speaking on the TMZ Sports’ Inside The Ring podcast, Lee detailed how the free-flowing environment in TNA has allowed her and her tag team partner, Jessie McKay, to thrive as The IInspiration. She compared this with her time in WWE, where she described a more restrictive system that could sometimes stifle their creativity by requiring every small detail of a promo to go through a lengthy approval process.
“Definitely, and I think that’s one of the reasons why we have so much fun at TNA, they just trust us,” Lee said. “When we are able to cut a promo, or if we are doing a backstage segment, they just trust that we know ourselves well enough to deliver the message in a way that we truly would. Having that freedom to banter with each other and just be us, we know that’s where our money is so it was somewhat of a battle at WWE when we were still there where, like, one little word would have to be approved and that would take an hour to get approval and it’s like, do you go wait outside of an office for six hours to see if you can get this line changed because it doesn’t really fit us? So that has been really nice with TNA. They trust us, and I know WWE would, too; it’s just they are a different beast… But yeah, we have loved every part of the creative aspect of TNA”.
Lee and McKay were a popular act in WWE as The IIconics, getting their start in NXT before moving to the main roster. They captured the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship at WrestleMania 35, but fans often criticized their run for its inconsistent booking. The team was controversially split up in 2020, and both wrestlers were released from the company in 2021. After their WWE departure, they joined TNA as The IInspiration, where they quickly won the TNA Knockouts World Tag Team Championship. After taking a break from wrestling to focus on motherhood, both have now returned to the active TNA roster.
The IInspiration are now set to challenge for the titles they once held, as they have an upcoming match against the reigning TNA Knockouts World Tag Team Champions, The Elegance Brand (Xia Brookside & Tasha Steelz). The championship match is scheduled for the upcoming TNA Victory Road special event.
If you use any portion of the quotes from this article, please credit TMZ Inside The Ring with an h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
