Simone Johnson will be known by another name in the ring: Ava Raine.
The 20-year-old daughter of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson announced her wrestling name on Twitter Sunday, changing her handle to @AvaRaineWWE.
She immediately began fielding questions on social media about why her name didn’t pay homage to her legendary wrestling lineage. The Rock wrestled for WWE in the late 1990s and early 2000s. His daughter signed with WWE in 2020, putting her “on a path to become the first fourth-generation Superstar in WWE history,” the company announced.
“To know that my family has such a personal connection to wrestling is really special to me and I feel grateful to have the opportunity, not only to wrestle, but to carry on that legacy,” the young Johnson said in a statement announcing her WWE contract.
She repeated that sentiment on Twitter Sunday under her new name: “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. a name doesn’t discredit any prior accomplishments from any family.”
As Johnson weighed potential ring names, there was one that was apparently never under consideration: The Pebble.
“i beg of you guys to find a new joke. anything,” she tweeted.