The Rock states that pro wrestling has brought him and Simone closer together.
Simone Johnson a.k.a. Ava is currently signed to WWE and is a member of The Schism faction in NXT. She made her in-ring debut in early April on the NXT Stand & Deliver Kickoff show in an eight-person tag.
Her transition into wrestling was discussed by her father, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, while he was on The Pivot Podcast. He explained how pro wrestling helped bring him and Simone closer together. Johnson said he had Simone when he was young and figuring himself out. He likes to say they grew up together.
I have the privilege and honor of watching my daughter Simone (Johnson) and… I had her when I was young in my 20s and you know, as dudes, we’re still trying to find ourselves in our 20s, in our 30s. If we’re lucky, we reach our fourth level and we find ourselves a little bit (he laughed). We get a little bit more wiser. So when I had Simone, I was flying by the seat of my pants. I was wrestling full-time, I started transitioning into movies full-time. I had so much sh*t going on so I like to say me and Simone grew up together. So we had a relationship where I was always gone but we tried to keep it together. Now, years later, as she becomes a pro wrestler, it’s actually brought us closer together. So in a way, it’s helped save that relationship too so, in many ways, pro wrestling has been my family’s savior.
Dwayne Johnson is a co-owner of the XFL along with Dany Garcia. The XFL Championship game is scheduled for May 13th at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. It’ll be the D.C. Defenders going up against the Arlington Renegades.
After the acquisition of the XFL, Johnson and his team met with NFL’s Roger Goodell, Troy Vincent and fellow company executives and he clarified that there is no competition between the two leagues. Johnson wanted to see if there was room for a partnership and Goodell said yes.
I felt like and Dany (Garcia) felt like this too. If we can take our time (with the XFL). Let’s not try and put it on its feet too quick. Let’s go to New York and sit with Roger Goodell and Troy Vincent, hat in hand, respectfully. Here’s what we’d like to do and we did that by the way so we flew up to New York after we made the acquisition. Sat down with Roger and Troy and some of their other executives and said, ‘Here’s what we’d like to do. There is no competition with the NFL. That’s the gold standard.’ I said, ‘But what we’d love to do is try and grow the game of football out of respect. Is there a way that we could find a partnership?’ And Roger looked right at me and said, ‘Yes.’ Looked right at all of us and said, ‘Yes.’
The last time The Rock wrestled in a sanctioned match was at WrestleMania 32 in 2016. Going into this year’s WrestleMania, Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns commented on the possibility of facing The Rock.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit The Pivot Podcast with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
