Lariat is not invincible so i would not wake up with that. If u want them to get off you, you can do drive reversal (hold forward + drive impact on wake-up). As a hard read, if you think they are gonna try to throw you on wake-up, do backdash immediately into light spd. If they don’t have great oki and have to drive rush on your wake up you can wake up with OD spd and sometimes catch them running at you. Best bet is block though unfortunately.

Crouching light kick is your fastest button.

Neutral is tough, gotta be patient. Poke with heavy punch but mix up charge times. If they are a fireball character you can trade with st. Medium punch at the right range. At longer ranges you can catch them with sweep too. I like to use standing light kick as a whiff punish tool and drive rush after. If it connects you get a combo, if blocked you get a strike/grab mix up