WWE NXT Star Loses Last Name

An NXT superstar has had her name shortened on the official WWE website.

When Ava Raine debuted on the October 25th, 2022 edition of NXT it got a lot of attention with good reason. That’s because the 21-year-old’s real name is Simone Johnson and she is the oldest daughter of future WWE Hall of Famer, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

Ava was put into the Schism group led by Joe Gacy with Jagger Reid and Rip Fowler. The group is known for its cohesiveness while also playing mind games with anybody that gets in their way. They often talk about how they are equal that are four roots forming one tree.

Since joining the group, Ava hasn’t wrestled a match on television. Ava signed with WWE in February 2020 with her father The Rock posting this message about the news when she signed.

“Congrats to my #1 born, Simone Johnson, on officially signing her wrestling contract with WWE and NXT. And on her way to becoming the first-ever 4th generation WWE athlete.”

While she was originally introduced to the NXT audience as Ava Raine, her name has been shortened to just Ava now as reflected on her WWE profile page.

It’s unknown why WWE made the change or if she was the one that wanted it to be changed. In the past, people used to blame Vince McMahon for name changes, but he is not part of NXT or WWE’s creative team at this point. It could just be something done by the decision-makers in WWE to give her a shorter name.