Ava Raine, the real-life Simone Johnson, daughter of The Rock, has cut her first promo in front of a WWE crowd at a recent NXT live event.
Simone Johnson joined WWE as a trainee at the Performance Center in February 2020 at just 18-years-old. As the daughter of Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, she is set to be the first fourth-generation Superstar in WWE history. Both her grandfather, Rocky Johnson, and great-grandfather ‘High Chief’ Peter Maivia were also legends of the squared circle.
Back in May, the fourth-generation wrestler revealed that she had been given a new WWE moniker, Ava Raine.
Now, the budding star has taken more steps on her WWE journey. On July 8th, Ava Raine made her first appearance in front of a live audience at the NXT house show held on July 8th in Citrus Springs, Florida. According to WrestlingNews.co, at the show, she went out to “scout” one of the women’s matches, circling the ring before heading back through the curtain.
Now, Orlando Sentinel’s Jay Reddick has revealed that she cut her first promo in the ring the following night in Orlando, Florida.
Tonight was reportedly Simone Johnson's first promo in front of fans #WWENXT#nxtorlando@AvaRaineWWEhttps://t.co/oDWvtJmx95
— Jay Reddick (@runninjay) July 10, 2022
One fan in attendance reported that Ava Raine was “talking smack” about NXT’s Cora Jade, who recently won the NXT Tag Team Championship alongside Roxanne Perez.
Oh SNAP it is @AvaRaineWWE at #WWENXT#NXTOrlando and she talking smack on @CoraJadeWWE and the rest of the new generation of NXT women’s division pic.twitter.com/LKAgZdtZVW
— rich schellhase (@richschellhase) July 10, 2022
As Ava Raine continues to make strides in her NXT career, it looks like it will just be a matter of time before the star becomes a weekly fixture of the developmental brand.