Simone Johnson, the daughter of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, also known as Ava, announced on January 30, 2026, that she was leaving WWE, shocking many NXT fans. At the time, no reason was given, and, obviously, this has led to a great deal of speculation online about why she is voluntarily walking away from what was believed to be her dream job.
And now, during the latest episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer revealed that WWE recently released her girlfriend, Tatyanna Dumas, which could have potentially played a part. However, this remains speculative, and Meltzer notes he can’t confirm it was the reason, but his sources have “put one and one together.”
“One person had contacted me and mentioned Tatyanna Dumas, who is her girlfriend, was cut, which we didn’t hear just a couple of weeks ago. They weren’t quite saying that’s why she quit but it was something that people put one and one together that maybe that had something to do with it.” – Dave Meltzer
26-year-old Dumas had an interesting path to professional wrestling, as after being a standout basketball player, she appeared as a Gladiator named Comet on the Australian version of the show and also competed on Ninja Warrior. This led to her being recruited for WWE’s LFG contest, and while she never wrestled on NXT television, she did put over Karmen Petrovic and Zena Sterling on house shows.
