Punk won the feud because he's the one going for the world title.
He lost to MJF the first time so MJF would still come out of the feud 1-1 with Punk, leaving them set-up for a third match at some point, probably for the world title, probably with MJF winning.
Wardlow and the ring was involved both times because that's called a "story". The first time, it was to build to the stipulation match. The second time, it was to turn Wardlow babyface and give MJF a new direction coming out of the feud.
When people criticize WWE's "50-50 booking", they're criticizing the specific WWE will have one guy beat a guy he's feuding with one week, then have the other guy beat him back the very next week, so nothing was accomplished by either match. When people complain about 50-50 booking, nobody is criticizing a four month feud where the guys happened to both win one match each.
