The matches with Punk definitely helped both guys as they were competitive matches and where both were booked to come out looking like winners and were able to display their wrestling ability. The match at Over the Limit was probably their best in the WWE. The MITB one was also good but was pretty much helped by being a hardcore match and AJ doing the pin counts. The surfboard to dragon sleeper that Bryan did to punk was really great thing to see in the WWE.
I love that submission combination. Hope we get to see more of that once Bryan gets away from that black hole, Kane.