2024 Ongoing MOTY List: Harley vs. Mina

 

17. Harley Cameron vs. Mina Shirakawa AEW Collision 11/16/24

ER: What a silly match, that I have been looking forward to for what feels like months. This is easily the best the AEW women's division has ever been and a dozen of them feel like actual marketable superstars. I've been wanting to write about Harley Cameron, one of many AEW women who I feel have been giving off Superstar Auras over the last year. This was a match that I never wanted until I got caught up in the laugh out loud funny promos building to the match, peaking with Harley's guitar promo with Renee that "went long" and cut her off mid-proclamation. To quote Harley, "What does Mina have that Harley Cameron doesn't? NOTHING!" 

She's not wrong, and she wasn't even bragging about how much better she is in the ring than Mina. That might seem like a hot take, but it's true. To any viewer who had never seen a single AEW women's match, none of them would guess Harley Cameron is - as of this match - not quite 50 matches into her wrestling career. Compare her to other AEW women who are also relatively new, and there is no comparison. Julia Hart has taken some steps, but still clearly wrestles like someone with less than 100 matches. Anna Jay - 130 matches - on this same episode of Collision took an entire 60 burdensome seconds to get a table and set it up in the ring. Nearly 10% of her main event match was spent slowly setting up a table while Mariah May had to crawl around selling. There is no immediacy to anything she does, and she didn't take even one second to put in some extra boots to Mariah while in the long process of moving a table. It was awful. But there, earlier in the evening, you see Harley work her match at the exact right pace, with strong selling, working directly to her opponent, and it's clear she does not wrestle like someone less than 50 matches into her career. Hell, look around at the women who have had hundreds of matches and counting - Willow Nightingale, Nyla Rose, Kris Statlander - and none of them have the balance, control, and ring placement of Harley Cameron. How is that possible? 

She does not look like an athlete, yet she runs the ropes better than any woman I just mentioned and her offense actually fits her movement. She moves through that offense more naturally than any of the  women I've mentioned, which is another thing that just should not be. She works snug on her strikes and surely does not need to do so. Find me the other women in AEW with harder clubs to the back or betting looking elbow smashes. Queen Aminata for sure, Toni Storm, Jamie Hayter, maybe Serena Deeb. That's all, by my count. Go watch Kyle Fletcher throw a club to the back, then watch Harley Cameron do the same and tell me with an honest face that Fletcher's is better. You won't be able to. 

Perhaps more surprising than her strikes is the way Harley leans in to strikes. I am still surprised by how long she hangs in on offense that is aimed at her face. She waits for the contact with no arms held out in front. Mina's whipping kick, a big rolling elbow, a springboard kick, all of them taken with her head and face leaned in for contact, hanging in until impact. It's not just that she's good at taking her opponent's strikes and offense, she's somehow good at occupying herself while waiting for that offense. The way she occupied herself arguing with the ref before turning around directly into a rolling elbow was just one example of her strong timing. If you're talking her ability to make offense look good, look no further than the way she took Mina's slingblade. I don't think Mina has a very good slingblade - most wrestlers do not - but you wouldn't know it from watching Harley take it. It is a Bad Slingblade but Harley hangs in straight until the whip, then flies backward like her head outweighs her whole torso. 

It's not just the way she takes offense, it's the way she sells that offense, which is sometimes more layered than you'd think. I love the way she got staggered by an elbow, a sell that realistically reacted to the actual strike. She fought hard for rope breaks and her performer's intensity she showed in selling Mina's knee work was great. Again, find me any examples from any of the experienced names above who have sold knee work better. I haven't seen them. Harley abandoned a fireman's carry early because of that knee, and I my favorite part was how Mina progressively kicked out Harley's leg. It took five kicks to the knee and thigh to finally knock her down to a knee but each one furthered the damage and each kick was sold appropriately, small bits of selling leading up to one big goal. 

Look, I don't know what the future holds for Harley Cameron. In modern wrestling it seems like anyone who comes in as this much of a natural is eventually corrupted by all the worst elements and pick up habits that only make them do the same bad things as everyone else. Harley has a tough line to walk and I don't know what will happen. We'll always have her first 50. 

2024 MOTY MASTER LIST