The Rock's daughter makes shocking WWE NXT debut as Ava Raine

[Liz]

Ava Raine, the daughter of WWE legend Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, stunned the pro wrestling audience Tuesday night when she was revealed to be the last member of Joe Gacy's faction.

Gacy was addressing the crowd as the leader of The Schism while wrestlers in yellow masks stood on a podium behind him. Rip Fowler and Jagger Reid had already been revealed as members of the group.

"Our mission statement is clear: remove your mask and join the Schism," Gacy said, "or be torn down."

Raine stood on the podium between Fowler and Reid. When she removed her mask, the crowd appeared to be shocked.

"The love and acceptance The Schism has given me, defies any preconceived notions of who I'm supposed to be," she said. "This family completes me. I am Ava Raine."

https://twitter.com/i/status/1585081861449056257

Raine's real name is Simone Johnson. She is the daughter of The Rock and his first wife Dany Garcia. She began training at the WWE Performance Center in February 2020 and signed a contract with the company three months later.

There was some backlash over her ring name back in May 2022, but she put it to bed in a tweet.

"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," she wrote. "A name doesn't discredit any prior accomplishments from any family."

She is the first fourth-generation wrestler in WWE history. Her grandfather Rocky Johnson and great-grandfather Peter Maivia were both professional wrestlers who performed in the previous iterations of WWE – the World Wrestling Federation and the World Wide Wrestling Federation.

https://twitter.com/AvaRaineWWE/status/1531031070090612737?s=20&t=C1UXTutgNPCxFvDrZR8E1A