Mark "Undertaker" Calaway's expected long-term reign as World champion is in jeopardy, not because of a booking change, but because of a torn biceps suffered before Sunday's Backlash PPV match.

Calaway will be seeing Dr. James Andrews this afternoon, but is still scheduled to appear on tonight's television show which is conveniently in Birmingham, where Andrews' works out of.

He was in tremendous pain Monday morning after the match. Because of how the muscle has completely rolled up the air, the belief is he suffered a complete muscle tear off the bone, which will require surgery and he'll be out six to eight months.

The original booking plan was for a lengthy Undertaker title run this year, and him working far more house shows than in many years. That's one of the reason he trained himself into getting so lean, which gave him added stamina and quickness on this run.

If it is at all possible, Undertaker does want to drop the championship in the ring, but that decision won't be made until Andrews sees him today.

It has been confirmed that the Undertaker has suffered a complete tear to his biceps and will be out of action for the rest of the year. WWE announced Tuesday night at the SmackDown tapings in Birmingham, Alabama that the current WWE World Heavyweight Champion will face Batista on next week’s edition of SmackDown in a cage match.

In all likelihood Undertaker will drop the belt despite the original plan to give him a substantial run with the title. Obviously due to injury that is now impossible. The two most obvious candidates to replace Undertaker as champion are Batista, who is in next week’s match, and Mr. Kennedy who has the Money in the Bank title shot that he won at WrestleMania.

While the outcome of next week’s title match on SmackDown has yet to be confirmed, expect Undertaker to drop the belt due to the severity of his injury.