WWE: The Road To the Royal Rumble Begins Now

Took a quick vacation but I'm back for 2011 – BOOM and with an agenda.
 
We are only weeks away from my absolute favorite pay per view of the year, The Royal Rumble! Sure Wrestlemania has its pageantry, and Summer Slam or Survivor Series have their big matches but nothing in my book tops the event of The Royal Rumble. My favorite aspect being the 30 man over the top rope match, I think mainly because anything, everything and anyone can happen in that match.
 
Who can forget great rumble moments like Lawrence Taylor feuding with Bam Bam Bigelow or the image of Stone Cold Steve Austin relaxing on the top turnbuckle looking at his ‘watch’ waiting for the next participant. The Rumble match up has in my opinion never disappointed. This year I see it being once again playing out to be an amazing event, and with the rumors starting on secret participants and themes for Wrestlemania I can only imagine the goodness that will follow.
 
So let us begin this Road to Rumble series:
 
The 'bodies' those that are a part of the event for the purpose of being thrown over the top rope
 
We could very well see in this Rumble from the Raw side the members of Nexus, The Celtic King Sheamus will be there Tyson Kidd and possibly his body guard on the outside to help pull down the top rope and let him eliminate people. What’s a battle royal with out the worlds strongest man Mark Henry and lets throw R-Truth being in there as well. Over from the Friday Blue Team we’ll get Albert Del Rio, The Big Show of course, The Chosen One Drew McIntyre, the underdog Rey Mysterio and most likely Tyler Reks and Chavo Guerrero, Ezkiel Jackson, Cody Rhdes and Mr Kofi Kington.
 
If we had that group it gives us twelve remaining participants, none of them are likely to main event Wrestlemania so most likely none of those superstars would be winning. Rey and Big Show are the only two exceptions to that group, but the route that has been playing out doesn't seem to put it in the cards.
 
So who are the twelve, are they legends, those returning from injury maybe even Divas?
 
1 – HHH, The King of Kings returns so that Sheamus can have that surprised look on his face when the music hits and the feud can be reignited to Wrestlemania.

2 – The loser of one of the title matches? Miz? Orton? Edge or Kane any one of them could lose their title match and then make their way into the rumble.

3 – The Undertaker returns. The Deadman could easily come back and make a return without putting that much physical strain on his injured shoulder.

4 – Evan Bourne suffering from the same injury as Taker, he will most likely make a return, not that it will make a large difference he's just one more of the cannon fodder who doesn't pose a threat to winning.

5 - John Cena - currently injured, maybe Cena will take a back seat until the Rumble only to make a big return.

6 - CM Punk, the new leader of Nexus is rumored to be on the rise, will his recent success as a ring announcer and now once again controlling a powerful group within the WWE put him in the top spot at the Rumble?

7 - Wade Barrett the former leader of Nexus will most likely take a spot, and I wouldn't rule out him being a winner of the match.

8 - The Great Kahli, will the giant come in and return to the fray, maybe as a heel and ditch the whole kiss cam gimmick.

9 - A Diva or two to join? Beth Phoenix has participated in the Rumble in the past, I could see her coming out and making her presence known, only to have Awesome Kong arrive and have Beth be threatened and have the two of them eliminate one another.

10 - Can Golddust return for the match? He's featured on WWE.com in regards to the match and his new book and popularity online could put the golden one up high on the list.

11 - Christian, the Canadian Captain of Charisma could get the Peeps on their feet and put him on a path to taking on former brother/tag partner Edge.

12 - Chris Jericho. Yes he's my personal favorite so I may be slightly partial, but really come on its a possibility.

Now those being said we need to think that some of the cannon fodder might not make it to the big match and maybe we'll overload the battle royal with a few more interesting possible characters.

What of the Legends that we sometimes see, possibly a return of Ricky Steamboat again, Sgt. Slaughter, the first Rumble winner, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, all could pop in to join the event. Rumors of a WCW theme for Wrestlemania could play a major role bringing in guys like DDP, Kevin Nash, or the rumored Goldberg any of which could show up to really have everyone question what the future will hold.

Whomever are the participants, I can't wait January 30th will be here before you know it, and I'm counting down the days and plan on taking you all with me on this road to the Rumble.