She may be following in her famous father’s footsteps, but Simone Johnson wants the world to see her as her own person. The 20-year-old daughter of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is ready for her chance to be a wrestling star and it seems that she’s inching closer to her official WWE debut. Simone signed with the mega-brand back in 2020 but only recently did she finally reveal her wrestling name: Ava Raine.
Wrestling remains one of the most-watched sports entertainment events in America and with Simone’s news came both applause and criticism. Of course, wrestling fans had quite a bit to say about “Ava Raine” as they questioned why she didn’t choose a name close to her father’s moniker. Messages of all kinds flooded in by the tens of thousands.
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“I probably sound like a broken record & hopefully this is the last i’ll mention this but i don’t understand why people being portrayed as separate individuals from their family name is such a heated topic,” she tweeted. “A name doesn’t discredit any prior accomplishments from any family.”
“I could build my entire career around my father & people would still bash me anyway [shrug emoji],” she added. Meanwhile, Simone—or Ava, now that her social media pages have changed to her stage name—followed up her tweets by adding that she was “not trying to ignore or undermine all the sweet comments” from her supporters.
Ava’s famous dad has previously expressed how proud he is of her by taking up his torch while also carving out her own path. Check out her tweets below.
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