Simone Johnson, daughter of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and former general manager of "WWE NXT," may no longer be in the professional wrestling business after departing the developmental brand at the beginning of the year, but as a member of the legendary Anoa'i family, the former Ava grew up in and around the industry. She appeared on Cody Rhodes' "What Do You Want to Talk About?" podcast to talk about all things wrestling, including how she got into watching WWE.Johnson said that her paternal grandmother, Ata Maivia Johnson, had been "waiting" for her to want to start watching wrestling. She told Rhodes her curiosity got the best of her around 9-years-old, when she started watching tapes, from the 2006 to 2009 era, with her grandma every weekend."Edge is my favorite wrestler of all time, fun fact," Johnson said of the time period. "I don't know if I've ever said that publicly."Despite her love of that era of "WWE SmackDown," Johnson told Rhodes that her favorite match actually occurred in much more recent memory. She also joked that it's surprisingly not an Edge match."It is actually, Charlotte [Flair] vs. Rhea [Ripley] from WrestleMania 2023," Johnson said. "That's my favorite match of all time. I remember seeing it in person, and as it was happening, I was just like, 'This is the best wrestling match I've ever watched in my life...' Forever in awe of them in that match."Ripley and Flair went one-on-one at 'Mania 39 at SoFi Stadium for the SmackDown Women's Championship, where "The Eradicator" won the gold. WWE named the bout one of its top 50 WrestleMania matches of all time.If you use any quotes from this article, please credit "What Do You Want to Talk About?" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
