To answer your question, I would like to say that Page one was basically introduced as one of the Top Tiers of Beast Pirates who was casually hanging out with Drake (a supernova) and was one of the Flying Six. That much was already a hype enough for him. If not, even Law another Supernova stated that he was indeed one of the Big Gun of Beast Pirates. Furthermore an ancient zoan DF was a cherry on the top for the hype train he got from Oda.
Honestly, imo those things were enough of a portrayal for him to be considered a legitimate strong opponent. And Oda used him as a perfect hype tool for Sanji and his new found RS power of stealth black. He even let the ending be suspenseful (except for Page One’ scream). In the Fire festival it would have been much more better time to reveal that the guy in the mask (O-Soba) did indeed took out one of the flying six.
The last part was my own head canon though. Lol.
I get it that many people assumed P1 to be a fodder material since Sanji basically flung him around after RS but it was their own personal Head Canon.
Toei did good on making the battle last longer cause not everyone who doesn’t follow manga can accumulate many details from the single page worth of battle. They did however messed it up with Sanji making a run for it. It didn’t make look Sanji any better. It killed off all the hype from the RS and Sanji.
“Having more friends are good but having fewer enemies is also an advantage.” -Sanji
So, that was a lie..?? The fight should have, heck even the episode should have ended after Shooting star kick.