It’s Time to Make the NXT Women’s Championship Iconic

Time is the most special idea imaginable, considering it guides every aspect of every life on the planet. That life passes in such objective and universal measurements is quite bizarre when one stops to think. (Though of course, there is no such actual thing as “stopping.”) Seconds and minutes and days and weeks and months and years pass, almost every moment of which zoom by completely unheralded and unmemorable. The one true constancy of existence is monotony.

Yes, for the most part, time’s arrow merely marches on.

But every once in awhile “the stars align,” causing moments to leap out of our continuous doldrum. Sometimes a scenario unfolds in which exist the right people, in the right place, at the right time, and life becomes just a little bit better. Moments like these are rare, so when they happen it’s a rush of joy: like a couple of kangaroos hopping their way to happiness.

For the first time since at least April 2016 (one could realistically argue July 2015), the landscape of NXT’s Women’s Division has blown completely open. How on earth do you follow Asuka, the undefeated, 523-day reigning champion, who vanquished eight separate opponents in title matches?

Yes, the NXT Women’s Division is arguably more talented than it has ever been, but succeeding Asuka is an extremely tall order. Who possibly could have the justified gravitas to assume that role, especially given that whomever is next will be winning a vacated title rather than being the one to overthrow the Empress of Tomorrow?

The answer is very simple: You don’t.

Not coincidentally for NXT, a promotion that really should permanently have the benefit of the doubt, the most Iconic flag-bearers possible of “you don’t” are ready and waiting to hop their way to the title.

Right persons. Right time. Right place.

(Many thanks as always to @totaldivaseps for their phenomenal GIF work.)

That the NXT Women’s Championship is the best booked title in WWE is inarguable. Every single day that the championship was held with honors by Paige, Charlotte, Sasha Banks, Bayley, and Asuka helped to build a vaunted legacy. Now it’s time for Peyton Royce and Billie Kay to use this legacy—by claiming that storied history is in fact mere prehistory.

As listed above the lineage of champions is elite, and every reign has been dominant and (other than two vacations) only finally ended via legitimate, clean triumph. There’s no title hot shotting and there are no bad or even mediocre performers in the championship’s lineage. Perhaps most remarkably, only twice has the title been retained via cheating: Sasha Banks pinning Charlotte with her feet on the ropes March 4, 2015; and Asuka throwing the referee into the rope to stop Ember Moon’s Eclipse finisher at TakeOver: Orlando April 1, 2017.

Read that again: only twice in the history of the title has cheating ever determined a match outcome, and only a few times has outside interference ever even played a role in any title defense or switch. (Becky Lynch attacked Charlotte during the then-champion’s defense against Sasha Banks in January 2015, causing a disqualification; and Bayley’s victory over Eva Marie in November 2015 was marred by Nia Jax’s interference and a crooked referee, but the babyface champion overcame the odds to win anyway.) This is an extraordinary and simply unheard of record in modern wrestling and is the surest sign yet that NXT showrunners are well aware of just how to overcome the decades of WWE’s misogyny.

To this point literally nobody has won or held this title unless they deserved it on kayfabe merit alone, which will make Billie Kay’s almost certain outside interference at TakeOver: Houston to ensure Royce’s win that much more diabolical. It won’t just be cheating to win a championship; it’ll be cheating to win this championship.

But frankly such corruption of this heralded title in November is necessary. There’s not much more ground to be currently gained with another “deserving” champion. It’s literally not possible to “fill Asuka’s boots,” doubly so when you consider she took the title off the most beloved Superstar in NXT history. If anything, the NXT Women’s Championship is currently too lofty, and needs to be ostensibly “brought down” in status for the division to feel as if it’s just as important now (more, in truth) than it was the prior few years.

Putting the title on The Icons negates any such questions. In one fell swoop, all legitimacy problems will be erased, because no future babyface star will be trying to replace Asuka, who supplanted Bayley, who took the title off Sasha Banks in the best match of 2015 and the best ever match in American women’s wrestling. Instead any post-Iconic face champion will merely be restoring dignity to the title after a reign of The Iconic Duo squirming their way out of challenges, cheating, and general chicanery.

Along the way, the wily Royce and Kay will consistently claim themselves the “greatest NXT Women’s Champion of all time”—a patently false notion made ever more wonderful by the fact that, again, they’ll win a vacated championship that was given up because literally no one could beat the prior holder. Their delightful combination of self-centeredness and vainglorious boasts will make one wonder whether they actually believe the idea, or if they’re simply trolling both their current opponents and predecessors.

Few others can so impressively and overtly juggle such a delicate balance of conceit and deceit.

Because of course the truth is that any future champion who ever claims to be the “greatest NXT Women’s Champion of all time” (in either kayfabe, meta, or objective truth) will be telling a lie. The context of women’s wrestling in WWE in the mid-2010s cannot be replicated, and that very real battle means the impact that the greatest champions had can never really be surpassed.

Even Royce’s win on Oct. 11, 2017’s episode of NXT to earn a spot in the Fatal Four-Way at TakeOver: Houston is representative of their good fortune. Peyton pinned Nikki Cross only because Taynara Conti had already stopped Cross from recording a certain pinfall victory on Liv Morgan, followed up by Conti leading the angry Scot on a goose chase that ended with the Sanity-member walking straight into a spinning heel kick from The Icon.

Right persons. Right time. Right place.

(They will also become the funniest champions by far in the lineage, as their fallout promo that night again made clear when Kay celebrated with noisemakers, Royce excitedly pulled at her hair and hopped up and down before finally beginning to cry, which then made Kay cry, so that when The Duo left the screen they were near hysterics. )

It is hard to remember now, but NXT in 2016 was a very underwhelming product. Yes, the TakeOvers continued to deliver, but this is as much an endorsement of limited pay-per-view shows rather than of any particular quality in the NXT specials. (There will never be TakeOver fatigue as long as this model remains, whereas the main roster’s extreme oversaturation of pay-per-views makes every show—including the “Big Four”—feel unimportant.)

Several aspects contributed to NXT’s relative slide. First and foremost, the product graduated an immense amount of not just talent, but the very heart and soul of the brand. Losing all of Sasha Banks, Sami Zayn (not entirely, but essentially), Kevin Owens, Charlotte, Neville, and Becky Lynch in 2015 was a devastating blow—literally taking away the stars who made NXT what it had become. Further losses in summer 2016’s brand split draft didn’t help matters.

But it was creatively where NXT really fell short. A brand that had drawn such organic love from an intensely devoted fan base rested on its laurels in the one aspect it most excelled: fostering the creation of engaging and entertaining characters.

It’s hard to overstate just how much “feel” NXT lost when it began to consistently self-referentially claim it was the place for “Dream Matches”—rather than providing a product that made dream matches organically, it relied on performers’ statuses from their prior work to simply “give” these contests to the fan. As of August 2015, there was no such “dream match” of a 30 minute Iron Man match between Sasha Banks and Bayley. NXT and its performers instilled those feelings in fans through their own work.

Frank Sobotka in season two of The Wire summed up NXT’s “dream match” problem well: “We used to make shit in this country, build shit. Now we just put our hands in the next guy’s pocket.” In 2016, NXT failed at consistently building shit that felt lasting and meaningful in its singles divisions.

Bayley’s drawn-out graduation (using a storyline injury so she could skip TakeOver: The End and get a proper sendoff in Brooklyn) meant that the NXT Women’s Division didn’t get the definitive post-Horsewoman relaunch it needed once Asuka won the title at TakeOver: Dallas. Furthermore, losing Alexa Bliss, Nia Jax, and Carmella in the brand split draft meant that the division basically evaporated in the summer of 2016.

Outside of champion Asuka (and lame duck Bayley) the division was stripped of basically any well-known workers, or more importantly, characters. There was a distinct vacuum that needed filling. And though it took awhile, Peyton Royce and Billie Kay would be the ones to fill the gap.

For a long time the tandem seemed barely on the radar—they’d been featured infrequently in 2015, and slightly more in 2016 once they got their WWE nom de guerres, but hadn’t received much in the way of a sustained push. The beginnings of their alliance were characteristic of the issues facing NXT at the time. There was no real build to them teaming up—they simply appeared together one taping. There wasn’t even any retroactive justification for the duo coming together—again, it just happened.

In their very first appearance together in late September 2016 the two Sydneysiders joined forces to torment Liv Morgan. After Morgan was demolished by Asuka in a non-title match Sept. 28, 2016, the Aussies thoroughly mocked Liv backstage:

They began accompanying each other to the ring for their matches shortly thereafter, but it was not until Oct. 19, 2016, that they made their first real mark as a pair. While Morgan was being interviewed backstage, she caught a beatdown from Royce and Kay, who dragged Liv out to the stage. Royce put Morgan down for good with a running knee, and The Icons proceeded to make their claim: 

BK: I’m sorry, but Liv was just about to complain about being beat up. But she, uh, got beat up again. 

PR: We are putting the women of NXT on notice, and that includes you, Asuka. This division …

Both: Belongs to us.

(Kay’s line reading was particularly great in this segment.)

Bold, but not exactly a statement they were qualified to back up at the time. Though they continued to harass Morgan and her friend Aliyah, it was all very small-bore—making their threat to Asuka seem a bit silly. They’d eventually turn their sights on the champion in early 2017, ambushing her in the Performance Center’s parking lot Jan. 11, 2017.

The #WWENXT announce team breaks down the brutal attack on @WWEAsuka that occurred just moments ago by @BillieKayWWE & @WWEPeytonRoyce! pic.twitter.com/0RT27xFGhs

— WWE (@WWE) January 12, 2017

Due to their attack on Asuka and frequent verbal boasts, the two were entered into a Fatal Four-Way with fellow challenger Nikki Cross for the title at TakeOver: San Antonio Jan. 28, 2017. The Icons removed Cross from the equation by dropping her through a table, and Peyton scored a close nearfall on Asuka following a Widow’s Peak, but it was not to be. Royce took the pin following an Asuka spin kick, proving that even the numbers game was insufficient to topple the champion.

The match was their first big workrate challenge, and they passed with flying colors, completely dictating the flow of the match. But it was a few weeks prior, when NXT announced candidates for its 2016 Year End Awards, that The Iconic Duo truly came into their own with a completely out-of-the-blue Twitter campaign. Incredibly enough, it was a social media campaign in January 2017 that showed NXT’s ship was finally rightening.

Nominated in the category of “Breakout of the Year,” The Icons took it upon themselves to ensure they’d win the award. To be fair, the category itself was a bit of a misnomer: given NXT’s struggles, it was hard to argue that any of The Icons, Andrade Almas, Ember Moon, No Way Jose, or Sanity were true “breakout” acts to that point. Nevertheless, Royce and Kay pressed on, ambushing various Superstars in the Performance Center about whom they were going to vote for—and for whom they should vote.

First there was The Icons badgering Performance Center Strength and Conditioning coach Sean Hayes:

Billie’s furor at his answer of Ember Moon was particularly inspired, pantomiming speed squatting and speed bench pressing.

Next was NXT Champion Shinsuke Nakamura:

Royce’s dejectedness when Nakamura continuously trolled the pair on their accents almost—almost—makes one sympathetic to their plight, before remembering the entire thing is an narcissistic crusade.

The Perfect 10, Tye DIllinger, was stunned he was not nominated:

He had a pretty good case, to be honest.

Dash WIlder, one half of the two-time NXT Tag Team Champions The Revival, actually gave a satisfactory answer:

Finally referee Drake Wuertz was thrilled when asked the question, and was so amped for his choice of No Way Jose that he broke into dance.

At long last the overly enthusiastic act was dropped, and The Icons were overcome with sadness: “Why? I don’t get it.”

But the sadness was for naught, as NXT Universe rallied to their campaign and propelled them to victory.

They reacted about how you’d imagine when they received their award before TakeOver: San Antonio.

(They later stole Asuka’s Female Competitor of the Year Award, with Billie claiming voter fraud.)

Through this series of videos, The Iconic Duo actually became breakout stars—and more importantly, outsized characters in a division that lacked virtually any. They breathed life into a product that was stale and uninventive by helping to expand a world that had felt increasingly narrow. What’s more, shortly thereafter NXT started to gain its “feel” again, with more emphasis placed on character-building and interaction across divisions. It is as if The Icons true breakout reminded NXT what historically made the product so great.

Right persons. Right time. Right place.

Of course there is the very real and objective question of whether Royce and Kay are adept enough to serve as champions. Certain standards must be met even if the titleholders are meant to serve as a break from all that came before.

Thankfully, the duo can undoubtedly handle the role. Royce was working championship matches with Asuka on the NXT house show circuit as far back as October 2016 (she thoroughly impressed in Bel Air, Maryland when I saw her then). The duo have been bigged up by a who’s who list of WWE female wrestlers. Royce was gifted Bayley’s locker, an endorsement if there ever was one. And as noted, their character work is an exemplar hallmark of NXT’s most recent renaissance. Neither ever stop talking, shrieking, gesticulating, or otherwise expressing in their matches—the signs of talents both certain in their work and constantly aware of how their characters would act.

A common trait The Icons share with the three other sets of NXT “Mean Girls” (the BFFs, Team BAE, and Emma and Dana) is that they all helped to provide structure to the surrounding division. In fall 2013, despite Paige serving as NXT Women’s Champion, it was Sasha, Summer Rae, and eventually Charlotte who drove events by attacking various faces (Emma, Paige, and Bayley). In fall 2014, Banks and Becky Lynch continuously attacked Bayley while The Boss continued her hunt for Charlotte’s title. In 2015 Emma and Dana had less of an impact, but still consistently provided a second storyline feud (the other being Banks’ championship reign) for the weekly show by antagonizing a slew of opponents. This went on for nearly 2/3 of the year, most notably harassing Asuka for several months in (you guessed it) fall 2015 before Emma was finally beaten by the Empress of Tomorrow at TakeOver: London.

The Icons have not quite had the same impact to date, but this is largely because the entire division was reset. The groundwork for their reign has indeed been laid for a year, starting in … fall 2016. As noted above, they began by tormenting Liv Morgan and Aliyah, aggravated Asuka for a period of time in early 2017, and since have had rows with Ember Moon and the odd couple of Ruby Riot and Nikki Cross. What this means going forward, though, is that after TakeOver: Houston every established female babyface in NXT will have a storied relationship with the champions. (One also has to assume that Kairi Sane will be on the verge of winning in Houston before Royce and Kay neutralize her somehow.)

Because of this structure and composite worldbuilding and the larger-than-life characters of Royce and Kay, NXT Women’s Division will be better positioned post-Houston than it ever has—an enormous compliment to the future champions. Frankly, when viewed as a whole the case for Iconic Champions is staggeringly obvious.

Right persons. Right time. Right place.