The Rock’s daughter gets real on WWE exit: ‘There wasn’t one particular thing’

Former WWE NXT manager and a member of Schism, Ava Raine, aka Simone Johnson, parted ways with WWE earlier this year in 2026. On Jan. 30, 2026, Raine announced that she decided not to renew her WWE contract and finished her six-year tenure with the promotion.

Now, almost six months later, the 24-year-old daughter of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson has opened up about her exit. Speaking on The Downside with Gianmarco Soresi, Johnson shared that there wasn’t one specific reason for her departure, and the moment just felt right.

“There wasn’t one particular thing, unfortunately. It was like a lot of things and had been something that was on my mind for a while,” she said. “And I am so grateful for my time at WWE. I wouldn’t change it for the world. I got to live out the dream that [younger] me always wanted to. But I think it was just — it was time for something new. It was time for something different. And I really — I don’t regret leaving, and I’m really happy now.”

Done with WWE, Johnson now works with her mother, Dany Garcia. In the same interview, she further opened up about her future chances of re-joining WWE. “I think to a certain degree, but I do feel like so much of my life was public for so long,” she responded. “I’m not sure if I would want to participate in entertainment in the scale that I did when I was at WWE. But I feel like I love the outlet that I have now of being able to like make cute travel vlogs and do that. Because obviously it’s still public and being here [on the podcast] is still public, but it’s just not to the same degree [as] at WWE.”

A member of the Anoa’i wrestling family, Johnson started at the WWE Performance Center as a wrestler and adopted the name Ava Raine. She made her debut as part of Joe Gacy’s Schism before becoming the general manager of NXT.

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