With WrestleMania 23 in Detroit just three short months away, the major injury to HHH could not have come at a worse time for the company. In the short term, it puts a death blow to the DX storyline that has carried the company since the early part of the summer. Long term it kills any story that the company had for DX at Mania, and also puts the WWE in a position to change a lot of future plans. HHH had surgery on Tuesday afternoon in Alabama to repair one ligament that tore from the knee to the quad in his right leg. The early time frame that is being thrown around for rehab and then his return in 4-6 months, meaning that he will not be in a WWE ring again until likely May or June.

Scramble mode is now taking place within, and while you can never predict injuries to any star, other than John Cena, and Shawn Michaels himself, this injury is one that has really put the company behind the eight ball as to what to do next. Monday night on RAW they did a promo with Edge and Randy Orton stating that DX was dead with the injury to HHH, and next week in a handicapped match between Rated RKO and Shawn Michaels they would finish the job. Michaels did come out, cutting an excellent promo stating he did not know if DX was going to last with HHH on the DL, and that he would deal with Edge and Orton next week.

The truth of the matter is, the company has spent so much time and money into the DX storyline again, that when you look around arenas during RAW events, easily DX is the most popular thing out there. That leads one to believe that they will somehow find a way to keep the story going, but then there is the problem of what they are going to do short term to bring in someone to help out Michaels and make him his partner for the next few months.

There is a chance here that in order to stall to figure out what they going to do they could have Rated RKO beat down Michaels next week, have him off TV for about a month, and then have a game plan in mind for him to have a surprise partner ready to go for a match at Mania. Who that partner is at this point is anyones guess, and even the company's writers have little clue about what route they are going to take with the storyline.

The early thought is prior DX members like Billy Gunn and Road Dogg, but both of those guys are in TNA, and both totally hate both HHH and Michaels and have come out in various shoot interviews and said so. Sure money would do an awful lot to lessen the hate, but the bottom line is they have deals and contracts with another company, so having them as a part of WWE and DX is very unlikely. The other member that is out there is X-Pac, but again, he has a tainted history with the company, and while he would fit the situation, he was the most hated member of the group by fans and having him comeback might not even work with the fan base.

As far as current superstars on the rosters of RAW, SmackDown, and ECW, one guy that might fit the situation is C.M. Punk. Punk and DX were partners at Survivor Series, and he seemed to fit well with the group. While it would totally take Punk to the next level with the amount of attention he would get, I don't know long term if he fits with the situation. He is a guy that I have been saying for sometime deserves a shot at the higher level, and this situation would put him there in a heartbeat. Of course anytime you talk about Michaels and HHH, you always have to think about long time friends Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, but once again, they don't fit here at all.

So my guess is you'll have a Michaels beat down on Monday night, have him off TV for sometime, while the crowds wait and wait for his and DX's return, which would make it a great build for Mania. It also means that by Mania, you may have HHH in good enough shape to make a TV appearance to keep him on the fans minds so come May or June when he's back for good, they won't have forgotten about him. Whatever they do, this situation is one that is going to be interesting to see how in the end it plays out.