>>44779086everything led up to that battle hinting at Ash winning including the preview trailer and episode Japanese name.
Even the animators expressed disappointment of the battle despite seeing Ash losing for 20 years which further hints that the original script had Ash winning but TPC changed it at the last second.
The scene where Charizard gets heavy damage from Pikachu and keels is also completely retconned into an entire new scene in the follow up episode which made it clear that Ash losing was rigged by TPC because they didn't want Charizard to lose
