that Starrcade would take place in Charlotte, North Carolina. During the segment Ric Flair approached WCW World Heavyweight Champion Vader with a contract. First Vader refused to sign it, but when Flair revealed he would risk his career and retire if he lost the match, Vader agreed to the match, signing the contract for the main event of Starrcade. For the next match Dustin Rhodes was teamed up with King Kong to take on King Kong's regular partner Awesome Kong and The Equalizer, leaving Rhodes as the lone face against three heels. During the match all three heels attacked Dustin throughout the match, leaving Rhodes at a disadvantage throughout. In the end Awesome Kong accidentally landed on both King Kong and the Equalizer, leaving him vulnerable to Dustin Rhodes' Running bulldog move, which led to Rhodes pinning Awesome King. For the fifth match of the night rivals Sting and Jerry Sags were teamed up to take on Ron Simmons and Keith Cole. During the match Simmons started to get a little rougher in the ring, beating Sting down repeatedly. When he tagged in his partner Cole would wrestle a more basic match, opting for arm locks and holds, frustrating Simmons throughout the match. Near the end of the match, Sags tagged Sting on the back, taking over the match to pin Keith Cole. After the match Ron Simmons completed his heel turn by attacking Keith Cole. To start the sixth match of the night, Steve Austin got in the face of his tag team partner Ric Flair, telling Flair that Austin was in charge of the match and Flair needed to follow his lead. As a result, Flair simply stepped to the apron and watched as Austin faced off against Maxx Payne (and partner 2 Cold Scorpio). When Payne was able to overpower Austin he tried to tag out to Flair but Flair walked down the apron, out of range. Flair did tag in later on and generally got along with Austin on the way to defeating Payne and Scorpio to earn their way to the main event. In the next match regular tag team partners Shanghai Pierce and Tex Slazenger found themselves on opposite sides of the ring, initially refusing to fight. The refusal angered Pierce's partner Rick Rude who tagged himself in while Slazenger tagged in Marcus Bagwell. Near the end of the match Slazenger and Pierce finally