We open this week's Living Room Lariat with a look at AEW Dynamite and a couple of booking decisions that have us intrigued but cautious. The Hangman Adam Page and MJF stipulation additions make a certain kind of creative sense, but the problem is that the match essentially paints AEW into a corner no matter which way the result goes. Either MJF loses and you're back to square one with one of your most valuable acts, or Hangman wins and a top star ends up in an awkward limbo that is hard to book your way out of cleanly. We also look at Swerve Strickland's heel turn, why the logic is there even if the timing feels a little forced, and what it realistically opens up for him going forward.

Then we go long on WrestleMania 42. We are post Royal Rumble and still a few weeks away from Elimination Chamber, which makes this the perfect window to map out what a full two night WrestleMania card could look like. This isn't a hot take exercise — this is a genuine attempt to book a coherent, satisfying WrestleMania that serves the stories WWE has been building and gives every title and major act a meaningful spot on the card.

For Night One we look at the Intercontinental Title picture with Finn Balor, Dominik Mysterio, and JD McDonagh, a stacked multi-man match featuring Logan Paul, Bronson Reed and more, a US Title Ladder Match headlined by Jacob Fatu with an incredibly deep field, Randy Orton and Trick Williams and Sami Zayn, Seth Rollins versus Bron Breakker, Liv Morgan defending the Women's World Championship against Stephanie Vaquer, Cody Rhodes taking on Nick Aldis in one of our most out there predictions, and Drew McIntyre versus LA Knight for the WWE Championship.

Night Two brings the Women's Tag Team Titles, Oba Femi against Brock Lesnar, a stacked Women's US Title match, a massive Unified Tag Team Title match pulling talent from across the roster including the Usos, Fraxiom, Motor City Machine Guns and the Creeds, the Chad Gable El Grande Americano storyline getting its payoff, Gunther versus AJ Styles for a championship in another bold prediction, a three way WWE Women's Championship match between Jade Cargill, Tiffany Stratton and Bianca Belair, Becky Lynch versus AJ Lee for the Intercontinental Title, and Roman Reigns versus CM Punk for the World Heavyweight Championship closing the show.

We also break down our three most out there predictions — Cody versus Aldis, Gunther versus Styles, and a full unification of the tag team titles — and make the case for why each one actually makes more creative sense than it might look at first glance.

In This Episode:

• Intro (0:00)
• AEW Dynamite Recap (0:27)
• Booking Wrestlemania 42 (7:39)
• Outro (23:07)

We kick off this week's Living Room Lariat with a full WWE RAW breakdown. CM Punk and Finn Balor are set to collide at Elimination Chamber, and while the Chicago connection makes sense on paper, we dig into why the match setup could have been booked better and why the stakes feel a little off heading into WrestleMania season. We also look at why LA Knight winning the Elimination Chamber would be a genuinely great move for WWE's WrestleMania landscape, why Je'Von Evans getting his Chamber spot is exactly the right call, Penta entering the Intercontinental title picture, and how Bron Breakker's injury might be the moment Bronson Reed has been waiting for. Plus thoughts on the AJ Styles promo and the Stephanie Vaquer and Liv Morgan feud finding its footing.

Then we shift to NXT, where the creative struggles are becoming hard to ignore. Outside of Joe Hendry and Ricky Saints, the men's division lacks main event ready talent, the handling of Josh Briggs feels like a missed opportunity, and a potentially compelling women's story with Zaria and Sol Ruca had its intrigue stripped away before it could breathe. NXT has talent. It just isn't doing enough with it right now.

From there, we get into one of the bigger ongoing WWE debates — does it make sense to unify the World Heavyweight Championship and the WWE Championship? With Netflix and network television giving WWE two massive platforms, we make the case for why one unified title could actually elevate the secondary championships rather than diminish the overall product.

We then head to New Japan Pro Wrestling and the Hiromu Takahashi farewell at New Beginning. The sendoff was beautifully done, but Hiromu leaving tells a bigger story about where NJPW has failed its own talent. We break down why moving Hiromu and El Desperado into the Heavyweight division after the departures of Will Ospreay and Kazuchika Okada could have helped NJPW avoid the valley they are currently trying to climb out of, and why that missed opportunity matters for the company's future.

We close with a brand new recurring segment — War Games Survivor Series. The concept is simple: what would Survivor Series have looked like if WWE had War Games from the very beginning? This week we cover 1987 through 1998 and build out what those War Games matches would have been, who would have been in them, and how the stories of those eras translate to the War Games format.

In This Episode:

• Intro (0:00)
• RAW Recap (0:20)
• NXT Booking Struggles (10:25)
• Should WWE unify its belts? (15:51)
• NJPW loses Hiromu Takahashi (21:23)
• WWE Survivor Series/War Games Re-Write (27:13)
• Outro (41:28)

Peter Klein breaks down the 2026 Royal Rumble from the Couch Potato Diary main feed, then dives into a WWE 2K25 stream Q&A discussing what's next for WWE and fantasy booking dream matches if The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin ever ran as a tag team.

ROYAL RUMBLE 2026 BREAKDOWN:Full analysis of the Men's and Women's Royal Rumble matches, surprises, eliminations, winners, and what it all means for WrestleMania season.

WHAT'S NEXT FOR WWE:Post-Rumble fallout discussion, WrestleMania matchups taking shape, storyline directions, who's getting pushed, and where we go from here heading into the Road to WrestleMania.

DREAM BOOKING: ROCK & STONE COLD TAG TEAM:Q&A segment turned into fantasy booking gold: What if The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin formed a tag team? Who would they face? What dream matches could we get?

This episode combines Rumble analysis with interactive Q&A and pure wrestling fan dream booking. From breaking down what actually happened to imagining what COULD happen if two of the biggest stars ever teamed up.

🤼 Royal Rumble breakdown + fantasy booking goldmine

📺 Living Room Lariat is the wrestling home of Couch Potato Diary

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