Ortho: “…he also says bar kochba was a melech and rabbi Akiva thought he was moshiach. How strange! The Rambam pashut says a king and ur gonna tell me bar kochba was a king without fitting how the Rambam says a king is established?!”
The question is itself the answer. If the Rambam sets out criteria for someone being a king, and he then calls Bar Kochba a king, it must mean that Bar Kochba fit the Rambam’s criteria! The Rambam just doesn’t feel the need to tell us how Bar Kochba became king. The Lubavicher, on the other hand, does not, and did not, fit ANY of the criteria.