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Simone Johnson Ava Vengeance Day WWE

Simone Johnson (Ava) says she was given a heads up that fans may boo her after The Rock took Cody Rhodes’ WrestleMania 40 spot, the backlash changed how she felt about her place in wrestling: “Dad came back. You guys shook hands. He took your spot. That was Friday. That Sunday was an NXT pay-per-view. I think it was Vengeance Day. It was gonna be the first time there was WWE programming since that Friday Night SmackDown. 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 he was like, ‘Hey, can I just talk to you for a minute?’ I said, ‘Sure.’ I don’t think I had filmed the promo that I was doing yet that day. We were about to film it. He was like, ‘Hey, just so you know, when we play your promo, please don’t be surprised if they boo you.’ And I was like, ‘Okay. I can understand that.’ That did happen. All of the hate online happened. And that day, it changed the way that I looked at fans overall and it just changed the way that I looked at the wrestling business. For a while, I thought about it in a very negative way because it was quite negative at the time. But then I think in a way, I’m incredibly grateful that it happened because it kind of just made me double down. It made me more confident in what I was doing and why I was doing it. All these external factors can happen, 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 I think it was necessary. That Vengeance Day pay-per-view, it changed so much about how I thought about wrestling and my journey, and my place in wrestling. And you [Cody] reached out to me that day, and I’ll never forget that.” (What Do You Wanna Talk About?) #DwayneJohnson

1mo

Kunalsummer@kunalsummer

Follow

Simone Johnson Ava Vengeance Day WWE

Simone Johnson (Ava) says she was given a heads up that fans may boo her after The Rock took Cody Rhodes’ WrestleMania 40 spot, the backlash changed how she felt about her place in wrestling: “Dad came back. You guys shook hands. He took your spot. That was Friday. That Sunday was an NXT pay-per-view. I think it was Vengeance Day. It was gonna be the first time there was WWE programming since that Friday Night SmackDown. 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 he was like, ‘Hey, can I just talk to you for a minute?’ I said, ‘Sure.’ I don’t think I had filmed the promo that I was doing yet that day. We were about to film it. He was like, ‘Hey, just so you know, when we play your promo, please don’t be surprised if they boo you.’ And I was like, ‘Okay. I can understand that.’ That did happen. All of the hate online happened. And that day, it changed the way that I looked at fans overall and it just changed the way that I looked at the wrestling business. For a while, I thought about it in a very negative way because it was quite negative at the time. But then I think in a way, I’m incredibly grateful that it happened because it kind of just made me double down. It made me more confident in what I was doing and why I was doing it. All these external factors can happen, 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 I think it was necessary. That Vengeance Day pay-per-view, it changed so much about how I thought about wrestling and my journey, and my place in wrestling. And you [Cody] reached out to me that day, and I’ll never forget that.” (What Do You Wanna Talk About?) #DwayneJohnson

1mo