I worked backward from my winner Yuya and tried to give him the perfect scenario to one up Tsuji's previous year while Tsuji feels like he backslides by not making the finals. Generational Rival Stuff. Takeshita is in the finals to make things tense, everyones talking about how he's good enough but he's not full time so people are very split. Plus its a receipt for last year that makes Tsuji's semi-final loss all the harder.
Beyond that I tried to set up each champion for interesting title defenses post G1, make interesting win and loss streaks where possible, and leave finalists up in the air up until the last days. Tanahashi for example doesn't leave finals contention until the last two matches of his block.
Oiwa and Great O'Khan are probably a win high all things considered but getting the right finals is tough.
by kihp