A few things that I disagree with, with this article.

1) this Johnny is dead. There's no coming back from being flayed in secret wars, unless time travel shenanigans.

2) Pyro won because he manipulated fire. For the briefed moments while Johnny was in the air. This caused him to fall and what seemed like a broken neck was only a KO. It was the momentary lapse that gave Pyro the advantage. A longer dragged out fight probably would've seen Human torch win. But why would villains play by the rules.