The Rock Explains Unfortunate Way WWE Fan Pushback Has Affected Daughter Ava Raine

Last week's episode of "WWE SmackDown" saw Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson receive a warm greeting from the live audience in Birmingham. However, the circumstances surrounding Johnson's appearance emerged less than favorable online, as many fans were under the impression that Johnson was replacing Cody Rhodes as Roman Reigns' challenger at WrestleMania 40. This backlash eventually made its way to Johnson's real-life daughter, "WWE NXT" General Manager Ava (real name Simone Johnson), who revealed that she had received an abundance of death threats from angry WWE fans. As a result, Ava chose to deactivate her X (formerly Twitter) account.

On a recent episode of "The Pat McAfee Show," Dwayne Johnson addressed the pushback that followed his daughter. "She's feeling [the backlash] too. 'Oh yeah, Cody's gotta finish his story.' By the way, she's also got death threats. It's crazy. Like come on guys, we're all in this thing. And by the way, what happens in the middle of the ring and on these storylines, don't forget that, again, inside baseball – outside the ring, we all talk. We all can figure this thing out while working together."

Following last week's rollercoaster of events, Cody Rhodes has provided some clarification to his WrestleMania 40 status, declaring that he will indeed be challenging Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at the Philadelphia-based premium live event. It remains to be seen how Johnson may now be factored into WrestleMania plans. Although, WWE has confirmed that Chief Content Officer Paul "Triple H" Levesque is set to address to fallout of yesterday's WrestleMania 40 Kickoff media event, which included Cody Rhodes' aforementioned announcement, on tonight's episode of "SmackDown." 

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "The Pat McAfee Show" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.