In the current "WWE NXT" hierarchy, Ava Raine may be among the least interesting aspects of the show while also being among the most important aspects of the show. While she doesn't command the attention of the onscreen stars like NXT Champion Oba Femi or NXT Women's Champion Jacy Jayne, Ava has been the constant of "NXT" ever since late 2023, when "NXT" boss Shawn Michaels made her his onscreen assistant. That role has since morphed into Ava becoming "NXT's" general manager, and there is rarely a week that goes by where she isn't onscreen, making matches, announcements, and everything in between. In a way, her importance to "NXT" is something most always expected her to be in, even if they thought it would be under much different circumstances.
Indeed, Ava has been in her authority figure role for long enough in "NXT" that some may forget that she started out with aspirations of being a wrestler. And who could blame her; Ava is the daughter of one of the biggest wrestling stars of all-time in Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, in case you had forgotten, and when she first signed with WWE in 2020 as a Performance Center trainee, it seemed as though it would only be a matter of time before she was on the in-ring road to glory. Instead, knee injuries and the works led to Ava only wrestling six matches in her career, only two of which were singles matches, before she transitioned into her current role. As such, there shouldn't be that many questions regarding Ava's in-ring tenure. But at least one does come to mind; did Ava Raine actually have a finishing move?
Surely this is a silly question to ask; of course Ava Raine would have to have a finisher, what wrestler hasn't ever had a finisher? The problem is most wrestlers have more than six documented matches to their name, and while Ava surely wrestled more matches than that while training in the Performance Center, most wrestling fans never laid eyes on those matches. In fact, the same could be said for Ava's documented matches, three of which took place on "NXT" live events. And of the three matches Ava wrestled on TV, two were losses, and the one match where Ava did pick up the win she did so by headbutting Ivy Nile with a loaded mask, something that isn't a typical finishing move.
That seems to suggest that Ava had no finisher, correct? Not so fast my friends! The situation gets mirkier thanks to an article which lists Ava's finisher as Wasteland, a Fireman's Carry Slam popularized by Wade Barrett during his WWE run. The only issue there is no source is cited as to when Ava used the move, and as previously stated, her only televised victory came from a loaded headbutt, not the Wasteland. A deeper dive reveals that Ava could've only used the move one other time in front of fans; an August 19, 2023 house show, where she defeated Nile. But that only leads to more complications, as one of the few writeups of that event doesn't reveal how Ava won the match, only that she did so after Nile was distracted by Joe Gacy. Could she have used Wasteland after said distraction? Yes. Could she also have just rolled Nile up for the win? Also yes. And so, without any conclusive evidence, the answer to the question of whether Ava Raine had a finisher remains a mystery, wrapped in a riddle inside an enigma.
