WWE Brewing Thoughts: Royal Rumble 2011 and The Road To WrestleMania

After a three-week hiatus, Brewing Thoughts makes its triumphant return just in time for the most important three-month stretch on the WWE calendar.

The 2011 Royal Rumble is just six days away, and WrestleMania XXVII comes to us live from the Georgia Dome in Atlanta in just 66 days.

Plans for April's big event are starting to take shape. The big names are starting to be paired up behind the scenes, in preparation for the most important storyline build of the year.

The Road to WrestleMania starts Sunday night in Boston. Who will be the first man in WWE history to outlast 39 other superstars to earn a spot in the main event at WrestleMania XXVII?

The road to Atlanta will have plenty of twists and turns. This edition of Brewing Thoughts starts in the same place every superstar's road to the Georgia Dome will start: the TD Garden in Boston.

Five Names to Watch in Sunday Night's Royal Rumble Match

It has been five years since the Royal Rumble match was won by a superstar who had yet to win his first world championship in WWE. If any year is the year it could happen again, it is 2011.

Newcomers are running rampant in the main event on Raw and SmackDown. Alberto Del Rio, John Morrison, Dolph Ziggler, Wade Barrett, and The Miz used all, or part, of 2010 as a springboard into the world title picture on their respective shows.

But the main-event mainstays are not to be forgotten. New and old will collide in the squared circle in Sunday night's big match. Here are five superstars who should be in it to win it at the end of the 2011 Royal Rumble.

Alberto Del Rio - He's the hottest name on the IWC scene, and the most likely superstar without a prior world title reign in WWE to win this year's Royal Rumble. Del Rio has been on a roll as of late, getting wins on Monday and Friday nights. He may very well add another Sunday night in Boston.

Triple H - Two of the last three Royal Rumble matches have been won by a superstar returning from a long absence—John Cena in 2008 and Edge last year. Many expect The Game to return Sunday night. Will he win his second Royal Rumble in doing so?

Drew McIntyre - The Sinister Scotsman is SmackDown's dark horse. McIntyre has been considered for major pushes in the past, with Internet reports coming out this week stating McIntyre was initially slated to be the man to attack The Undertaker in his Buried Alive Match with Kane last year. An impressive showing Sunday night may be his new ticket to the top.

John Morrison - The Shaman of Sexy is Raw's dark horse. His match with The Miz showed he can hang with the big boys. His athleticism will likely keep him in it until the very end. The big question, though, is: Can he climb the mountain to headline WrestleMania?

John Cena - Cena is my pick to win it all Sunday night. It seems we can't have a WrestleMania without John Cena involved in one of the world title matches, and the opening promo for Raw last week did nothing but support the notion that Cena will win the Royal Rumble for the second time in four years.

Fun Facts for the 24th Annual Royal Rumble Match

In 23 years, we have had 24 winners of the Royal Rumble match (leave it up to WWE to have at least one battle royal with two winners) and there have been plenty of patterns in the big match. Let's take a look a few factoids that may give us a little better idea of who will win it all in Boston.

- Only two men, Hacksaw Jim Duggan and Shawn Michaels, have won the Royal Rumble match when entering in the teens. Duggan entered the 1988 match 13th, and Michaels entered the 1996 edition 18th.

- Seven superstars have won the Royal Rumble match as one of the match's first 10 entrants. Randy Orton was the last to do it, entering eighth in 2009.

- Glen Jacobs will extend his own WWE record Sunday night, entering his 15th Royal Rumble match. Jacobs' 15 Rumble appearances are a combination of his time as Kane, as well as his prior WWE gimmicks.

- Shawn Michaels' record of 39 career eliminations could fall this year. Kane, one of the most dominant forces in Royal Rumble history, needs four eliminations Sunday night to pass HBK. If The Undertaker were to shock the world and return in Boston, he would need to eliminate six other superstars to overtake Michaels.

- Ten Royal Rumble matches have been won by one of the last five men to enter the match. In fact, five of the last eight winners entered as nos. 28, 29, or 30. Will one of the last three entrants Sunday night earn a trip to WrestleMania?

Will WrestleMania XXVII Live Up to the Event's Lofty Standard?

Once upon a time, WrestleMania plans were laid out six months to a year before the event was sent into the living rooms of millions of WWE fans around the world.

This year, however, plans are still in a state of fluidity. So much indecision is abound, in fact, that the world title matches in Atlanta still aren't set.

The latest reports have Edge meeting Dolph Ziggler in a rematch of their Royal Rumble clash for the World Heavyweight Championship. But does WWE Creative believe in Ziggler to the point of putting him into a world title match at the biggest event of the year?

Before impressing Creative with his first world title reign, The Miz was slated to have a short WWE Championship reign. Now, is appears The Miz may be WWE Champion heading into WrestleMania. His opponent? Still to be decided, of course.

John Cena appears to be the logical, and most popular, choice. Internet reports have Cena or Orton as the likely opponent, and Sunday night seems to be the time Creative will hand yet another WrestleMania main event to Cena.

For the last four years, The Undertaker's WrestleMania opponent has had at least some of the WWE Universe believing The Streak could come to an end that particular year. 2011 doesn't seem to be one of those instances.

All signs point to Wade Barrett challenging The Deadman at this year's event. Even with The Corre at ringside, does anyone really believe Barrett will be the man to end the hallowed Streak?

WWE would be doing Mark Calaway an injustice by ending The Streak at any point, but having Barrett end The Streak with outside assistance from The Corre would effectively piss on the 20-plus years Calaway has given to the company.