As someone who started following Japanese wrestling in the 90s and once had a Team Burning pic in old message board signature ( @Coffey might remember that one), it was a real trip to see Jun Akiyama on my TV in 2022.
I feel like people are memory-holing that Garcia potentially turning on Jericho and pledging support for PRO WRESTLING was a pretty hot program for a little bit. Crowds were begging for it to happen, and not pulling the trigger seemed to be what hurt him the most. That's on TK for (once again) dragging shit too long rather than any fault of Garcia.
Orton's team with Riddle was sa breath of fresh air since it was the first time in forever he seemed to be giving a shit on a regular basis.
Your overall point remains true though, it's long been an issue with WWE that ever since the Brand Uber Alles era began they've essentially had the same people around for 15+ years.
To be fair to Hunter, Braun (twitter stupidity aside) was a top guy who was cut for BS budget reasons and Karrion Kross was one of his NXT babies who got turned into Farooq 2.0 on the main roster. I can see why he would want a do over on him.
The best part is this match is happening because Akiyama heard Eddie is a big KIng's Road fan and wanted to have a match with him and he was all "alright, that sounds cool, lemme hop on a plane to America".