Marking Out: The Onramp of the Road to WrestleMania 28

Welcome again to another edition of Marking Out.

Boy, what a time it has been for wrestling fans.

As it gets closer to WrestleMania, the WWE is amping up its promotion of of the event and the matches that are going to be on the card. While this week's Raw Supershow can be seen as a lameduck show, that's not to say it was without its merit and value to building storylines.

The start of the show featured founding Degeneration-X members Triple H and Shawn Michaels.

The way the promo went from Michaels taking Triple H to task for allowing the Undertaker to call him a coward, and Triple H responding by saying that he doesn't want to become the loser that Shawn has because he couldn't end "The Streak," gives some credence the idea that a number of things can happen.

It makes it seem that Michaels may play an impartial referee for the match between Triple H and Undertaker, if not maybe cost Triple H the match.

The world title feuds also gained some ground as Sheamus and CM Punk lost to Daniel Bryan and Chris Jericho.

While the Punk/Jericho feud is getting more attention than that of Bryan and Sheamus, the slow heel turn of Bryan seems to be really working with each passing week. It will be interesting to see how both angles build up in the coming weeks as they go into WrestleMania.

On the mid-card side of things, the WWE crowned a new U.S. champion as Santino Marella beat Jack Swagger after much involvement from both Teddy Long and John Laurinaitis. The smart money is that instead of there being a U.S. title match at WrestleMania,

Santino and Swagger will take part in a tag team match in order to decide who will become general manager of both Raw and SmackDown.

While the match could be better suited for another pay-per-view, it does make sense in a way to have it on the biggest night of the year for the WWE, hopefully giving many fans the satisfaction of seeing Johnny Ace be removed from power, unlike last year when the year's most annoying heel, Michael Cole, beat Jerry Lawler by a technicality.

As for what's being billed as the "once-in-a-lifetime" battle between John Cena and the Rock, the promos are becoming quite an interesting staple every Monday night.

With the Rock's "history lesson" to Cena running down the Rock's devotion to wrestling, the promos are seeming to get more personal level.

It makes sense, since recent reports are that there is some real-life animosity between the two backstage in regards to their personalities, according to a report from lordsofpain.net.

With that in mind, the angle is working in that it brings reality into the story, which will benefit the fans in the long run.

So here's hoping that the WWE keeps up the pace and continues with their promotion as I'm sure, like myself, many fans are getting pumped for the big night and the matches to come.