Hulk Hogan spent decades convincing wrestling fans that he was larger than life. According to longtime friend and former WCW executive Eric Bischoff, Hogan sometimes started to believe it himself.

During an appearance on the Planet Tyrus podcast, Bischoff discussed how the late WWE legend struggled to separate his wrestling persona from Terry Bollea, the man behind the red-and-yellow gear. For Hogan, being the Hulkster wasn't something he could simply switch off when the cameras stopped rolling.

"He was in character all the time," Bischoff said, explaining that Hogan understood what fans expected whenever he stepped outside his home. Whether he was working or running errands, people wanted to meet Hulk Hogan, not Terry Bollea.

"He lived it," Bischoff continued. "And, over time, I think he lost sight sometimes of who Terry was and who Hulk was."

Bischoff had a front-row seat to Hogan's career, including his blockbuster WCW run and transformation into Hollywood Hogan as the leader of the New World Order. The two remained closely associated long after WCW's collapse, making Bischoff one of the people most familiar with the demands of maintaining wrestling's biggest celebrity persona.

The recording became public in 2015, prompting WWE to terminate its relationship with Hogan and remove references to him from its website. WWE reinstated him to the Hall of Fame in 2018.

"The difference is: he owned it," Tyrus said. "He sincerely apologized, and he owned it. And that to me was the greatest strength of any man!"

Tyrus also acknowledged that Hogan had made serious mistakes, but questioned whether anyone could withstand the scrutiny that came with his level of fame.

"He wasn't perfect; he didn't always say the right thing," Tyrus said. "Who the f*ck does?"

His daughter Brooke has been especially outspoken about the difference between the wrestling icon audiences admired and the father she knew. She recently revealed that their relationship fundamentally changed after Hogan had an affair with her friend Christiane Plante, saying she forgave him but never felt he treated her the same way afterward.

Brooke also criticized Netflix's four-part documentary Hulk Hogan: Real American, calling it "missing 98 percent of real life" and arguing that it failed to address the family's more difficult history.

Bischoff, meanwhile, believes the documentary offered audiences something they rarely got during Hogan's career: glimpses of Terry Bollea without the wrestling character.