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.
