Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s daughter finally has her own professional wrestling name and is ready to follow in the footsteps of her father.
Simone Johnson signed to World Wrestling Entertainment in 2020, however, her career was put on hold after picking up an injury that required surgery.
It now seems she’s back and raring to go, revealing she’ll be wrestling under the name - Ava Raine.
Being the daughter of perhaps one of the biggest superstars of all time, some fans were a bit critical of her name not following on from the lineage of her father.
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WWE journalist, Louis Dangoor tweeted: “Giving Simone Johnson, the daughter of THE ROCK, a new name is completely nonsensical.
“Will hold judgement until she debuts, but if WWE doesn’t acknowledge her dad is The Rock that’s ridiculous.”
While another fan tweeted: “WWE calling The Rock’s daughter Ava Raine is one of the stupidest things I’ve heard in a while.”
Unfortunately for those fans… it doesn’t matter what you think!
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The name change makes sense when you look back at an interview The Rock had with Jimmy Fallon in May 2020.
He told The Tonight Show host: "She signed her contract with the WWE and you know it blows my mind.
"First of all, what an honour 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."
It’s not uncommon for WWE to rename generational superstars and have them carve their own path away from the name of their family.
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Bronson Rechsteiner, who is the son and nephew of the legendary Steiner Brothers, had his name changed to Bron Breakker when he debuted on WWE developmental show NXT.
Despite the name change, WWE still references his family’s legacy when Breakker is on screen, with the superstar using the ‘Steiner Recliner’ a move adopted from his uncle Scott Steiner.
Simone Johnson, or Ava Raine, hit back perfectly at the critics of her not keeping the ‘Johnson’ name for her wrestling career.
She tweeted: “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.
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“A name doesn’t discredit any prior accomplishments from any family.”
She later added: “I could build my entire career around my father & people would still bash me anyway.”
She definitely has a point, regardless of the name fans would be complaining she’s only where she is because of her father.
New names aside, she definitely has a bright future ahead as she looks to make her long-awaited debut.
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She will earn the distinction of being a fourth-generation wrestler after her grandfather Rocky Johnson and great grandfather Peter Maivia, were both wrestlers and all part of the famous Anoa’i family.
Featured Image Credit: Adam Scull / Alamy. Zuma Press, Inc. / Alamy.Topics: WWE, Wrestling, Wrestlemania, The Rock
