Simone Johnson (Ava) Didn’t Feel She Was In A Position To Grow In WWE

In January, Simone Johnson (Ava) announced that she would be departing WWE. She signed with the company in 2020, and was the NXT general manager at the time she made her decision to leave.

Speaking with Cody Rhodes on What Do You Want To Talk About? Simone was asked if it was a tough decision to walk away from the company.

“Incredibly. It had been something that I had been thinking about for about a year. I knew my contract was up in February. A couple things had been happening. There are a lot of different reasons why I chose to leave. It was incredibly hard, but I felt like it was time. I really wanted to grow, and I didn’t feel like I was in a position at WWE to where I could grow. I’m incredibly grateful for my time there, would not change it for the world, but I knew I needed to do something else. I needed to learn and grow and see what’s on the other side,” she said.

Simone now works as a junior executive at Seven Bucks Productions.

Elsewhere during the interview, Simone detailed the night the business changed for her. You can find her full comments here.

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