Didn't Foundation X show up at the end of that brave special?

Yeah, and there's a Buttobasoul medal/Energy Item holder themed after the Foundation X briefcase, with specific medals for W, OOO, Fourze and Ex-Aid.

I like the look. Sort of reminds me of Fourze and W.

I've never understood why people are so staunchly against this. Drive I get cause of the storyline with Banno (though who says they couldn't have funded Krim?), but anytime someone says Ryoma wouldn't work with Foundation X I think that's silly. It's not his company or position to decide what to do with funding, and even if it was I think he'd totally take every advantage he could.

I also don't think Foundation X providing funding takes away from the shows actual villains. It just makes them a different villain, in the background, that I'd like to see more of.

Exactly. It makes them feel like the 'bigger bad' as it were, and for some shows (like W), that works. But Gaim was extremely self-contained - not even crossing over with Drive in any way outside of the Movie War (when every other Phase II Heisei Rider has cameo'd in the previous Riders last episode(s) or summer movie) and already had the Helheim Forest/DJ Sagara.

Ryoma 'needing' Foundation X in any way feels very wrong, and I highly doubt Takatora would agree to work with them either.

They were in W, they were in Fourze, and they were in the OOO/Fourze movie. I'm quite certain that is a story arc.

It kind of sucks because Toei made it seem like we were going to start having a shared universe again with Kamen Rider, but nope, then they got scared and wanted to go back to status quo.

Last time I check, W and the later shows exist in the same universe.

Nice Kikaider & W motif.

Well, and in a certain Ex-Aid project in the past year...

Foundation X was the pet project of W and Fourze's producer. When he wasn't in charge nothing happened with them because the other producers didn't care. It was a neat idea, but I think a lot of fans built Foundation X to be way bigger and more important than they ever were.