Ringmistress, I can totally relate to your point. You say you were about 8 around that time? If your brother is just a few years older than you, then I'm about the same age as him and I was also a big Four Horsemen fan. I had just turned 10 before the 1st Great American Bash in 1985.
The Great American Bash was also my favorite time in wrestling, especially when they were doing the month long tour instead of just one big event. Not only did that tour allow me to see some great matches in Columbia, Greenville, Charlotte, etc., but it also provided big matches on the TV shows. Back then it was rare to get anything other than squash matches vs. jobbers on TV, but they did show the big matches during the Bash tours. I remember them showing some of the big matches from the classic Magnum T.A. vs. Nikita Koloff best of 7 series from the '86 Bash tour, some of the Ric Flair NWA title defenses from the '86 tour, the Ric Flair vs. Jimmy Garvin cage match from Greensboro from the '87 tour, etc.
The 1987 Bash tour provided what is still my favorite live wrestling event. My birthday is July 1st and my cousin's birthday is July 19th so, as a birthday gift for both of us, my grandfather took us both to the July 4, 1987 show at the old Omni in Atlanta for the big show including the first WarGames match. That will probably forever remain my favorite live wrestling event, even though the Four Horsemen lost that match (actually, EVERY heel lost that night).
Plus, the 1989 Great American Bash PPV is arguably the greatest wrestling PPV ever....at the least, it's one of the very best.
I have to say I was pretty irked too. I mean sure the crowd was dead but they still worked their butts off. From the "sexual frustration", to the "prune juice", and ah yes, let us not forget the "IBS (irritable bowel syndrome)