Simone Johnson (Ava) on Her WWE Departure & Wrestling Career Future

As noted before, former NXT General Manager Ava, real name Simone Garcia Johnson, departed from WWE this past January following her not renewing her contract with the company. Johnson is the daughter of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson.

A recent episode of The Downside with Gianmarco Soresi podcast featured Johnson as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Johnson’s thoughts about her departure from WWE and how there was not one specific reason for her decision to leave the company.

“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. 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.”

Johnson also gave her thoughts about the future of her wrestling career and if she wants to remain in the public sphere post-WWE.

“I think to a certain degree, but I do feel like so much of my life was public for so long. 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.”

Johnson also gave her thoughts about an internal website within WWE where promos are uploaded but never made public and revealed one promo by someone that will never air due to it invoked President Donald Trump’s name and the Iran War.

“We have this internal website where you can upload your promos and matches. One day, I was on there, and this one girl was cutting a promo. Her opponent has (Donald) Trump supporting allegations, that’s important to remember. The girl cutting the promo had something to do with running. The girl who is the opponent was talking shit and being like, ‘You’re running from me.’ The girl cuts a promo and goes, ‘Why don’t you ask your little friend Trump because the last person who said I ran got bombed.’ That promo will never see the light of day, and I’m so mad. I watched that with my partner and friend, and we literally closed the computer and walked away. Shakespeare himself could not put that promo together. It was literally three days after the war in Iran started. That’s my favorite wrestling promo.”

Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com, Fightful.com