Simone Johnson (Ava) Says The Hate She Received For The Rock Taking Cody Rhodes’ Spot In 2024 Made Her Look At Fans And Wrestling Different

Though he won the 2024 Royal Rumble, Cody Rhodes stepped aside and gave his shot at Roman Reigns and the Undisputed WWE Championship to The Rock at WrestleMania XL.

The Rock taking Cody’s spot upset many fans, and “We Want Cody” began trending online after the SmackDown segment took place.

Simone Johnson (Ava in NXT), The Rock’s daughter, was the NXT general manager at the time, and she was the first family member to appear on-screen after Cody stepped aside. She was not well received.

“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,” Simone recalled while speaking to Cody on What Do You Want To Talk About?

Things worked out for Cody, who still faced Roman Reigns in the main event of WrestleMania XL.

Elsewhere during the interview, Cody revealed his idea for The Rock wanting his soul. You can find his full comments by clicking here.

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