Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is one of the most prominent names in the history of the WWE and part of a long line of professional wrestlers on both sides of his family.
Johnson was a third-generation wrestler, with his father Rocky Johnson and grandfather Peter Maivia both being extremely popular names during their eras.
The next generation of the family lineage is now involved with wrestling and making her own name, literally, in the WWE.
The Rock’s daughter, Simone Johnson signed with the WWE in 2020. However, she has been sidelined with injuries while training at the WWE’s performance center.
It appears that she may now be ready to debut, but it will not be under her legal name or related to her dad’s Rock nickname. She has changed her social media handle to Ava Raine, which will be her WWE name going forward.
This news has many around the wrestling world confused about why she and the WWE have decided not to take advantage of her built-in lineage.
Not portraying Arianna Grace as Santino Marella’s daughter is one thing.
Giving Simeone 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. https://t.co/OgOU1Lw8Zy
— Louis Dangoor (@TheLouisDangoor) May 29, 2022
I'm slightly disappointed she won't be known as The Pebble. 😭
— George Bass (@GeorgeBassUK) May 29, 2022
Hope @WWE doesn't mess this up for @TheRock daughter @AvaRaineWWE (Simone). #WWE #TheRock #WWETheRock https://t.co/AhMJs7S0Nq
— Jeffrey (@JayNYC1987) May 29, 2022
The WWE second generation superstar name change discourse is silly. People are going to refer to The Rocks daughter as The Rocks daughter regardless of if she is named Simone Johnson or Cordon Bleu.
— Jordan Patu (@Jordan_Patu) May 30, 2022
It appears that Simone Johnson wants to make her own name in the wrestling industry, as she explained her reasoning for the name change on Sunday.
i could build my entire career around my father & people would still bash me anyway 🤷🏽♀️ https://t.co/LjkQdoOpws
— ava 🃏 (@AvaRaineWWE) May 29, 2022
“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,” she wrote on Twitter.
While some may be upset with WWE’s decision to use a different in-ring name, pretty much everyone has their name changed when they enter the WWE for copyright reasons. It’s a fairly normal thing.
There have been instances in the past where they have used a wrestler’s lineage as a storyline piece like the WWE did with Randy Orton, being the son of Bob Orton in the early 2000s. There’s also Charlotte Flair, daughter of Ric Flair. But there are plenty of instances where a name change was made in spite of someone’s lineage, such as with Bron Breakker, son of legendary wrestler Ric Steiner.
Regardless, Simone Johnson seems pretty determined to make her own path in the WWE going forward, and we will see if that hurts or harms her as her career progresses in the future.