I might get shunned by a good number of people on this site, but... I really don't like this episode. Why?
1. May didn't go through character development (until the end at least), she went through character DERAILMENT. It eerily looked similar to how Ash behaved in Brave The Wave, except much worse, and at least it made more sense in Brave The Wave because Brawly was a tough Gym Leader. Also, when I said "character derailment", I was referring to when May yelled at Ash only because he was trying to help.
2. The battle. As Brock pointed out, because of May's derailment, Bulbasaur gets understandably nervous, and does May care in the slightest? NO! Because of May's derailment, Bulbasaur can't fight, and for some reason gets paralyzed by Shock Wave, which DOES NOT cause paralysis! And when May loses, another character gets derailed: Contesta. All 3 judges are WAY too hard on her and accuse her of being an abusive trainer, but at least Nurse Joy, and Sukizo to an extent, had the right. Contesta has no excuse because he has seen May perform before! Also, it made her cry (I would, too...). At least Ash was kind enough to help her understand.
3. Team Rocket. I would be much more interested in the subplot where Team Rocket sells these giant ribbons than what we got. Good old-fashioned TR comedy without having them being annoying sometimes.
The reason I'm posting about this episode is because due to the inspiration from Mr. Enter's Animated Atrocities, I made my own with this episode:
http://emiohki.deviantart.com/art/Animated-Atrocity-Cruisin-For-A-Losin-476036940
I'm not going to be surprised if anyone disagrees because they are opinions after all.