Looking back, Harley Cameron was destined to be a wrestling star.
Forget the degree in journalism and working in a bank as a mortgage lender and being a self-described “little nerd” while growing up in Australia.
Focus more on the athletic ability — soccer player, trainer, fitness model, bodybuilder. And life in theater.
Then the move to the United States, made with the hopes of landing on Broadway, but turning into a career change after watching a show about wrestling and signing up for wrestling school.
“That’s when I realized wrestling is everything that I love, which is entertainment and athletics,” Cameron said. “I kind of had a lightbulb moment where I thought … Oh, I’m in the country where this could be a career.”
That led to Cameron signing with All Elite Wrestling (AEW), debuting on an episode of AEW’s Dark in July 2022 (where she lost to Willow Nightingale), teaming with Nightingale to become the inaugural AEW Women’s World Tag Team Champions — “The Babes of Wrath” — being named Most Improved Wrestler of the Year for 2025 by two publications and landing on magazine covers.
Cameron called teaming with Nightingale for the world championship a “very full-circle moment.” And that circle is not closed. Far from it.
Not with Cameron’s drive to one day be a world champion. “And you know what? I will be,” she said. “You’ve got to watch me.”
All Elite Wrestling, Harley Cameron, coming to home of TGL
Wrestling fans will have that opportunity May 9 at the SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens. Cameron will be part of AEW’s Highway to Hell, a one-hour live episode of “AEW Collision.” The event, the first of its kind at the home of TGL, will air on TBS and HBO Max.
The 20-by-20-foot wrestling ring has been constructed between the tee boxes where Rory McIlroy once hit a 392-yard drive and Tiger Woods once mistakenly hit a wedge 99 yards when it called for a 199-yard shot.
“You’re going to see wrestling in an atmosphere where it has never been experienced,” Cameron said.
Cameron’s personality, charisma and versatility makes her a rising star in the wrestling world.
She has incorporated her experience as a performer, singer, musician (she plays the guitar), comedian and … ventriloquist into her act.
Yes, ventriloquist.
Cameron was obsessed with puppetry while growing up and became a self-taught ventriloquist, performing at a cabaret. The secret, she says, is interacting with the puppet as if you are sitting alongside another person.
“You need to be reacting to the puppet performing,” she said. “It’s all well and good to go like this.” Cameron looks straight ahead and speaks without moving her lips.
“But you need to go like this.” She looks to the side and acts as if she is having a conversation with another person.
“It’s like, ‘oh wow, it looks like you’re actually having interactions between two people.’ “
The puppet once became her tag-team partner in a feud with superstar Mercedes Moné, taunting Moné. Cameron called the puppet, Mini Moné.
“Mini Moné became her love-hate interest,” Cameron said. “I think she secretly loves her. She liked to mess around with Mercedes and get under her skin.”
Harley Cameron felt like she was in ‘car accident’ every day
Cameron’s decision to pursue a career on the wrestling stage and not a Broadway stage was more painful than she anticipated. Although she progressed rapidly through wrestling school in Orlando, at times she had some doubts.
“Until you step into a ring and you feel what it’s like to get hit, take a bump, hit the ropes … I went in there a little too confident because I’d done athletics my whole life,” she said. “I thought, ‘oh, I can do this.’ And I got in there and very quickly realized, oh my gosh, it’s very hard.
“So there was definitely a lot of times where I thought to myself, I don’t know if I can do this because I really realized the level of athleticism it took and how I didn’t understand it.”
Cameron went home sore and woke up sore. “It feels like you’ve been in a car accident every day,” she said.
A car accident … in a ring, in front of thousands of cheering/jeering spectators depending on if you are the hero or the heel.
But it doesn’t matter.
Harley Cameron is doing what she loves. And it’s not crunching numbers to help clients buy a house.
“It makes me feel excited and alive,” she said. “And I think that’s one of the greatest things.
“I still remember day one to even now, that feeling, the adrenaline rush is still there. And that’s what is so exciting about wrestling.”
Tom D’Angelo is a senior sports columnist and reporter for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at tdangelo@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Harley Cameron’s wrestling career takes her to SoFi Center as AEW star
Reporting by Tom D’Angelo, Palm Beach Post / Palm Beach Post
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
