Uh....heck no! The rival is a character with SIGNIFICANT character growth, and he is my 3rd favorite character from all the anime. He is very smart, cares to evolve his pokemon quickly, trains them hard (though i prefer light training) and respects his elders! (most of them...) Though he can be harsh, it is so he wont be weak like his older brother as he puts it, and by the end of the anime, he is just that, strong, actually kind to ash, and did really good in the battle vs Ash. But he HAD to lose because Ash wanted revenge, so he got it! Oh, and i hope he comes in for B / W series at the league...though im just looking way too far in the future now...
I'm sorry, Yes he was interesting but the only episodes I saw him in(remember I saw very few) He was catching starly until he found a strong one(Well that actually was cool, since that's the way an actual trainer in the game plays if they want to be really good) and totally abusing chimchar(Which I don't blame him for since I found chimchars voice and personality extremely annoying)
I guess my main dislike about him was the way he was hard to relate to. Gary might have been a jerk and everything but he gave Ash a challenge and was just cocky enough to seem interesting without being annoying. I might just be holding on to my nostalgia a little to hard though here and I'll admit it.