Taking a step in her family’s footsteps, Simone Johnson has made her wrestling debut.
On Tuesday (Oct. 25), the 21-year-old athlete debuted under the ring name Ava Raine on “WWE: NXT,” becoming the company’s first-ever fourth-generation wrestler. In unveiling herself as The Schism’s fourth member, Raine said: “The love and acceptance The Schism has given me defies any preconceived notions of who I’m supposed to be. This family completes me. I am Ava Raine.”
People reported in May 2020 that her father, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, said he was very proud of his daughter, who became the youngest signee in WWE history at 18. “She signed her contract with the WWE, and you know it blows my mind,” he expressed. “First of all, what an honor that my daughter wants to follow in my footsteps but more importantly, follow in my footsteps sounds cliché, but she actually wants to create and blaze her own path, which is so important.”
He added, “She’s 18 now [but] at 16, she was working her a** off quietly under the radar, in the ring getting thrown around, you know, all the bumps and bruises that go with pro wrestling. But she hung in there, and I’m very, very proud of her.”
A long line of pro-wrestlers runs through Raine’s family, including her grandfather Rocky Johnson, great-grandfather High Chief and cousins, Undisputed World Heavyweight champion Roman Reigns and the Usos, the World Tag Team champions. As the newest member of the wrestling tribe, she expressed her excitement about joining the organization her family has been a part of for generations. “To the little girl who fell in love with wrestling [and] said, ‘This will be my life one day,’ this is for you. I’m humbled, grateful [and] ready to work. Let’s do this. @wwe @wwenxt,” she wrote in an Instagram post in February 2020.
You can check out Ava Raine’s “WWE: NXT” debut and her wrestling announcement down below: