On December 26, 1983 at Madison Square Garden, the WWF Championship changed hands in one of the most important main events of the early 1980s.

In this episode of the Wrestling Odyssey, LTD reviews Bob Backlund vs The Iron Sheik from MSG - the historic title match that ended Backlund`s long reign and set the stage for the next era of WWF.

After attempting to cover the December 4th Omni show from Georgia Championship Wrestling, we pivot to New York to break down the atmosphere, commentary from Gorilla Monsoon and Pat Patterson, Freddie Blassie at ringside, and the crowd reaction to one of wrestling`s most shocking moments.

How does the match hold up today ?

Did the storytelling outweigh the heavy use of holds ?

And what did the result mean for 1984?

Plus, with 1983 wrapped up, the first Wrestling Odyssey Awards are handed out - Including Match of the year, Face and Heel of the year, Show of the year and more.

The journey through wrestling history continues.

Bend The Knee.

The Wrestling Odyssey takes a look at WWFs house show at the Spectrum in Philadelphia which ran the same night as Starrcade.

In episode 1 of The Wrestling Odyssey podcast, I travel back to November 24th 1983 to review the first Starrcade.

From tag team matches to dog collars and steel cages, this is a modern fan reacting to an early territory era supercard.

Lets see how 1983 holds up to 2026 standards.

In this opening episode, I explain the purpose of The Wrestling Odyssey - a chronological deep dive through the history of professional wrestling. We`ll be starting at the end of 1983 and moving year by year through major events, stories and moments that shaped the industry.