MJF and Athena may have emerged as the respective winners of their Casino Gauntlet matches this past Saturday at AEW All In, but plenty of questions remain unanswered about when, or how, they will receive their guaranteed title shots. One question in particular that many fans and pundits have had is whether it will be a similar situation as last year, when Men's Gauntlet winner Christian Cage was able to cash in a World Title shot at any time, finally doing so unsuccessfully at AEW Revolution earlier this year.
At the post-All In media scrum, one member of the press corps asked AEW owner Tony Khan what the process would be for this year's Gauntlet winners. Khan didn't give up the goose, saying he would be offering clarity on the situation at upcoming AEW events. He did, however, hint that both MJF and Athena would be very involved in when these matches would be scheduled.
"I'm going to sit with the winners, sit with the champions, sit with the schedule, and I'm going to put some real thought into when I'm going to make these announcements," Khan said. "But I think there's a cadence that makes a lot of sense for this. But I think it would be safe to say that the challengers in this case, after MJF stepped up against such a talented field, frankly, and you have to give the devil his due, and Athena against one of the greatest groups of wrestlers and the first ever women's PPV Casino Gauntlet match, I think they've earned some say in when they cash these things in. So I will be making those announcements very soon."
