Simone Johnson (Ava) on How She Didn’t Feel She Was In A Position To Grow In WWE For Reason For Leaving & How The Hate She Received From Fans Over The Rock Taking Cody Rhodes’ Spot In 2024 Made Her Look At Fans And Wrestling Different

A recent episode of the What Do You Wanna Talk About? with Cody Rhodes podcast featured former WWE talent and NXT General Manager Ava, real name Simone Johnson, as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Johnson’s thoughts about her departure from WWE this past January and if it was a tough decision to walk away from the company.

“Incredibly. It had been something that I had been thinking about for about a year. I knew my contract was up in February. A couple things had been happening. There are a lot of different reasons why I chose to leave. It was incredibly hard, but I felt like it was time. I really wanted to grow, and I didn’t feel like I was in a position at WWE to where I could grow. I’m incredibly grateful for my time there, would not change it for the world, but I knew I needed to do something else. I needed to learn and grow and see what’s on the other side.”

Johnson also gave her thoughts about how the online hate she received from fans over her father Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson initially taking Cody Rhodes’ spot for WrestleMania 40 in 2024 made her look at fans and the wrestling industry in a different way.

“Dad came back; he shook your hand; he took your spot. That was Friday. That Sunday was a NXT pay-per-view, Vengeance Day. It was the first time there was WWE programming since that Friday. I will never forget this. I was sitting in makeup. I finished my makeup, and our head writer, Johnny Russo, came up to me and was like, ‘Can I talk to you for a minute?’ ‘Sure.’ I don’t think I had filmed the promo that I was doing that day, we were about to film it. He was like, ‘Just so you know, when we play your promo, please don’t be surprised if they boo you.’ ‘Okay.’ I can understand that. That did happen. All of the hate online happened. That day, it changed the way I looked at fans overall and changed the way that I looked at the wrestling business. For a while, I thought about it in a very negative way. It was quite negative at the time. In a way, I’m incredibly grateful that it happened because it kind of made me double down and made me more confident in what I was doing and why I was doing it. All these external factors are happening, and everyone can have an opinion because of who I am or what my dad has done. It made me be a little selfish in my journey and what I was doing, but it was necessary. That Vengeance Day pay-per-view changed so much about how I thought about wrestling and my journey and my place.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com 1 & 2