Above video: Women in wrestling.
WrestleMania, one of WWE’s and the world’s largest wrestling events, took place over the weekend.
Here’s 80,000-plus wrestling fans crammed into New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium to watch the action.
But that’s not what’s got Australian Twitter on fire today.
That’s thanks to two Sydney-born women, Jessica McKay and Cassie McIntosh, better known as Billie Kay and Peyton Royce.
To wrestling fans they are The IIconics and, as of Sunday, you may also refer to them as WrestleMania Women’s Tag Team Champions.
As is expected, social media is going off over the news.
Who are 'The IIconics'?
The IIconics taking out this title marks a milestone in Australian representation in WWE competitions.
The pair originally met while wrestling against each other in the Australia-based Pro Wrestling Women's Alliance.
As a team, they made their WWE debut back in 2016 where they climbed up the ranks of the legendary code.
Now they’ve made history, as the first ever Aussie Women’s Tag Team Champions.
They’ve been vocal about what their involvement means for female representation.
It's going to open up more doors, because all of the little girls who are watching WrestleMania, they're going to see the women in the main event.
"That's such a powerful statement and I think it's going to have a really positive effect on their lives, knowing that they can achieve anything that the men can do and do it just as well," Billie Kay told FoxSports.
The money behind WrestleMania
For those who don’t get chills from The Undertaker theme song (and yeah, you should), the feverish excitement around WrestleMania can be confusing.
But across the globe - particularly in the United States - WWE is not just big entertainment, it’s big business.
Due to a boom in ticket sales and an increase in ticket price (we’re talking upwards of $160 USD) WrestleMania 35 brought in $16.9 million in revenue.
It also provides a major tourism boost for the hosting city: last year’s events alone netted $175 million for New Orleans.
That’s not even including the massive amount of cash that rolls in from the likes of media rights, streaming revenue and consumer products.
Not bad for “scripted programming”.
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