Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson denies that his oldest daughter, Simone, aka Ava Raine, sought his help to join the WWE.
The actor and professional wrestler praised his 24-year-old daughter during his time on the Monday (October 13) episode of podcast New Heights with hosts Jason and Travis Kelce. Around the 51-minute mark of the episode, The Smashing Machine was discussing his life as a father of three daughters and brought up Ava, who made her WWE debut in 2022. Johnson shares Raine with his ex-wife, Dany Garcia.
"But here's the cool thing. When she came to me and she she came to me at 16 and said, 'I want to do what you do. I love this business just like you do and I want to do it,'" Johnson told the hosts.
But while Raine respected the path her father paved, she didn't ask him for any favors to get into the WWE.
"She became the youngest WWE signee at 16. "She was going to NYU, and she gave me and her mom a call and said, 'I want to pivot. I want to go directly into WWE NXT and start training down there in Orlando.'"
The request wasn't a problem for Johnson, who said he didn't receive a call from Raine to get in good graces with key WWE leaders. "I never got the call like, 'Hey dad, I want to do what you do. Can you call WWE? Can you call Vince McMahon? At that time, could you call Nick Khan? Could you call somebody?'" he continued. "Never once did she ask me could you make that call. She was just like, 'I want to do what you do. I want to blaze my own path.'"
"'I want to call myself Ava Raine,' not, you know 'The Rock' something or anything like that. She was like, 'I just want to do it on my own. I love you. I respect you,'" he continued.
The entertainer also explained that his daughter wouldn't just be following in his footsteps, but also in her late grandfather's, Rocky, and great-grandfather, Peter Maiva, both who were pro wrestlers.
"I was like, 'Your great-grandfather and your grandfather were wrestlers,'" Johnson said. "'So I love that you want to do it on your own and I'm here. I got your back.' And so she's been doing a great job and I keep tabs on her."
Elsewhere, Johnson said that Raine being in the wrestling business has brought them "closer together" and shared that he considers it "the biggest joy."
While attending The Smashing Machine premiere with Raine last month, Johnson told MTV UK that his daughter was "born" into wrestling.