Ava Says She Wants Back in the Ring After WWE Exit

Simone Johnson may be done with WWE, but she’s not ready to say her wrestling career is dead. The Rock’s daughter says she still wants to get back inside the ring — she just has to get her body to stop fighting her first.

During an appearance on Cody Rhodes’ What Do You Want To Talk About?, Johnson was asked point-blank whether she was finished wrestling. Her answer made it pretty clear she hasn’t slammed that door shut.

“I hope not. I have a couple of injuries that I need to sort out. When that is done I think. I do genuinely miss actually wrestling.”

That’s a pretty big admission considering fans haven’t seen her wrestle a match since August 2023. WWE eventually moved her away from competing and into the NXT General Manager role, but Johnson revealed she was still training and wrestling behind the scenes even while running the show on television. The problem was that her body eventually tapped out before she did.

“For my last two months there, even when I was general manager, I was still training and wrestling. But for my last two months, I was in so much pain that I wasn’t actually wrestling. I do miss that.”

That pain helps explain why her in-ring career disappeared while her television role kept getting bigger. Johnson became a regular fixture as NXT GM, but apparently she never completely gave up on the idea of wrestling again.

Then came the other huge change. Johnson walked away from WWE after deciding not to renew her contract, ending a run that started when she entered the Performance Center in 2020 with enormous expectations attached to her name. She later made it clear there wasn’t some massive blowup behind the split either. Johnson said there wasn’t one giant reason she left WWE, but after spending years inside the system, she was ready to move on.

Now comes the interesting part. Johnson is out of WWE, she misses wrestling, and she openly believes she could get back in the ring once those injuries are handled. For somebody who hasn’t wrestled publicly in years, that sounds a lot less like retirement and a lot more like unfinished business.

The Rock’s daughter may have left WWE behind, but apparently she hasn’t left wrestling behind with it. If her body finally cooperates, Simone Johnson sounds like she’s got at least one more run in her.

This transcript was produced exclusively for Ringside News from the original recording. Republishing the transcription in full is prohibited. When using excerpts, provide prominent credit and a link to this article.