There was a plan in place for the two duos to feud.
At the 2019 Elimination Chamber pay-per-view, the inaugural WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions were crowned in Bayley and Mercedes Moné. Several months later at WrestleMania, the titles were captured by The IInspiration (Jessica McKay & Cassie Lee) in a Fatal 4-Way tag match.
There was a program that McKay and Lee were supposed to go into after winning the titles but it was scrapped. The duo shared details on their Off Her Chops podcast. They stated that they were supposed to go into a four-month program with The Garcia Twins (Nikki & Brie Garcia).
McKay stated that Nikki and Brie told them about the scrapped plans much later down the line. It was supposed to go up until SummerSlam 2019. McKay and Lee remember Nikki not being cleared to compete but it was more so about her having to consistently be active in the ring throughout that four-month storyline. Lee added that she feels it would’ve changed their careers to work with The Garcia Twins.
Lee: The story with The Bellas… We had heard through the grapevine or were we told?
McKay: I think they told us.
Lee: They told us. I think you’re right. The Bellas told us.
McKay: They DM’d us. I think so. I still have that DM (she laughed). I can probably go look at it. I can’t remember how the information got back to us. But it was later. It wasn’t like right after we won them.
Lee: We definitely didn’t know when we won them… We won the titles at WrestleMania and we were supposed to go into this story with The Bellas.
McKay: Up until SummerSlam. It was supposed to be a long feud.
Lee: Which would have probably changed the trajectory of our careers and that’s not no one’s fault. Everything happens for a reason. But, why did it not happen?
McKay: I think Nikki came out and said that she — she just wasn’t cleared.
Lee: Yeah. That sounds familiar.
McKay: I’m not sure what it was in particular… I can’t remember, it was so long ago and we didn’t really have all the information back then but, it was just I don’t think she was cleared to come back and wrestle full-time for four months. That’s a lot so, I just don’t think that unfortunately could happen… I always think about that. I’m like, f*ck, that really would have changed our careers drastically. But, it didn’t happen and it is what it is. That would have been a big bucket list tick off ours just because they’re a women’s tag team that we looked up to and stuff like that so, definitely would have been fun too. I think we could’ve had a lot of fun with them.
McKay and Lee were contacted by WWE and asked to be in the 2022 women’s Royal Rumble match.
McKay is currently expecting a child with her husband and Lee is gearing up to make her return to in-ring competition.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Off Her Chops with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
