Before she even made her NXT on-screen debut, Ava Raine was making headlines as WWE’s first-ever fourth generation Superstar. Not only does her bloodline incorporate some very important figures, there is also the small matter of her father being Dwayne Johnson, known to WWE fans around the world as The Rock.
When Johnson made his own WWE debut back at Survivor Series in 1996, he was the companies very first third generation star, so his progress came with some expectations. However, when your father is one of the most famous names in the world, and arguably the biggest wrestling star in history, that pressure and expectation is on a whole new level.
Ava Raine – Simone Johnson – joined the WWE Performance Center in February 2020, aged just 18-years-old. After putting in the work away from the cameras, the would-be star arrived in NXT as the mysterious fourth member of Schism on October 25th 2022.
A week after her surprise debut, Raine addressed fans about her decision to join the group led by Joe Gacy.
‘Everyone thought they knew everything, but I showed them that they no nothing,’ she said.
‘I’ve been around WWE my entire life, and nobody ever took the time to get to know me, until I met Joe [Gacy], Rip [Fowler] and Jagger [Reid]. They were the only people who took the time to see the real me.’
When BT Sport pondered what The Rock might make of his daughter’s decision, she quickly fired back (in character) that it was “irrelevant.”
irrelevant.
— A V A (@AvaRaineWWE) November 2, 2022
Dwayne Johnson Says Ava Raine Will “Blaze Her Own Trail”
Speaking in an interview back in July shortly after Ava Raine cut her first promo at an NXT live event, Johnson commented on his daughter’s progress. The Hollywood megastar explained that while he’s obviously very proud of her, she is determined to carve her own path in WWE.