>>54287346Leon had been focused on too much that season for Alain to beat him for a rematch with Ash, which logically means Alain didn't have a chance. I wasn't expecting anything, and knowing how the masters 8 was fraught with production issues I can understand why they wrapped up Alain's fight as quickly and cheaply as possible. Especially now that I know they were setting up to retire Ash; even more reason it must end up as Ash vs Leon, so they can gift Ash a free win to close the final chapter in his story.
It's pretty much the same way I feel about Lance, Cynthia and Steven. I'm a fan of all three of them as well, but the writing was on the wall: logical outcomes needed to be discarded so they could finally retire Ash for good.