At his day job as an associate art director and graphic designer at EPIC Creative in West Bend, Steve Garrou is mild-mannered, rational and responsible. But his alter ego in the wrestling ring is anything but.
For several years, Garrou, a 6-foot-3-inch, 240-pound behemoth of a man, has performed as an amateur wrestler under the stage name “Sadist” in WWE-style tournaments and local and regional leagues, including Wisconsin Pro Wrestling and the National Wrestling Alliance Midwest.
“My character is everything that I am not in real life,” Garrou said, and laughed. His character is known for being aggressive and enjoying inflicting pain on his opponents.
“I’ve been a fan (of wrestling) my whole life,” he said. “I still watch every week. It’s one of those childhood things I never let go. It was always something I wanted to try. In college, I decided I was going to get my degree and make sure I had my backup plan, but I was going to be a professional wrestler.”
As long as he has been wrestling, Garrou has been working in marketing and advertising as a graphic designer. He’s been working at EPIC Creative for the past two years.
“I personally love it,” he said of his career as an amateur wrestler. “I love the idea of wrestling because it is, in a sense, marketing. You’re marketing for a show, you’re marketing a character so you can draw people in and get them emotionally invested, and that’s essentially everything I do as a graphic designer.”
