The Rock has sent support to his daughter Ava Raine, who is now beginning to make her way around the NXT live event circuit.
Having been signed to the WWE Performance Center since February 2020, Simone Johnson – daughter of the legendary Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson – has now begun to appear on NXT 2.0’s touring live events. Appearing as Ava Raine, the fourth-generation WWE Superstar made her debut during a recent event in Citrus Springs, Florida.
At an event in Orlando, however, Raine cut her first promo in front of a live audience. Deeming herself ‘The Final Girl’, the 20-year-old was reportedly “talking smack” about Cora Jade, one-half of the current NXT Women’s Tag Team Champions.
The Rock has responded to his daughter’s debut, telling Entertainment Tonight’s Rachel Smith how proud he is of her for being so “fiercely independent”:
“She’s made history. Very, very proud of her. She is fiercely independent, it’s very important for her to make her own way, blaze her own trail, blaze her own path. She doesn’t come to me looking for a lot, which I respect that, and I’m here watching and supporting.”
It’s unknown when, exactly, Ava Raine will make her official televised debut, but a stint on the house show circuit has traditionally been one of the last steps before the jump to live television.
When she was signed in 2020, Ava was touted as being the first fourth-generation WWE Superstar in history. Part of the illustrious Anoa’i family, her WWE journey comes after that of ‘High Chief’ Peter Maivia, Rocky Johnson, and, of course, The Rock; her great-grandfather, grandfather, and father, respectively.
A series of knee surgeries is what’s prolonged her debut. The real-life Simone Johnson noted during a September 2020 update that she was to undergo her third knee surgery. So long as she doesn’t receive any other injury-related setbacks, we could be just months away from her NXT 2.0 debut.
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