Andy ‘The Butcher’ Williams, wrestler and guitarist, dies at 48 after match collapse

Dubai: Andy Williams, the American professional wrestler known as “The Butcher” who built an unusual second career in the ring after establishing himself as a guitarist in the metalcore band Every Time I Die, has died after collapsing during a wrestling event in Pennsylvania. He was 48. 

Williams suffered a medical emergency on Saturday night while competing at an Enjoy Wrestling event at Mr. Smalls Theatre in Millvale, just outside Pittsburgh. He was teaming with his longtime partner Jesse Guilmette, known professionally as The Blade, in a tag-team match against TME when he became unwell near the conclusion of the contest. 

Medical personnel at the venue immediately attended to Williams, performing CPR and using an automated external defibrillator before an ambulance arrived, according to accounts from the event. The remainder of the show was cancelled as he was taken to hospital. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office later confirmed his death. 

The medical examiner has not announced an official cause of death. Emergency dispatch recordings reported by US media indicated that Williams had struck his head on a ring post during the match, but authorities have not established that the impact caused his death. 

His death brought together two communities that rarely overlap so completely: professional wrestling and heavy music.

Williams was a founding guitarist of Every Time I Die, the Buffalo, New York, metalcore band formed in 1998. He remained with the group through more than two decades of touring and nine studio albums before the band broke up in 2022. He later returned to music with Atomic Rule. 

Professional wrestling began as a second act. A lifelong fan of the sport, Williams started pursuing wrestling seriously while already an established touring musician and began teaming regularly with Guilmette as The Butcher and The Blade. The pair joined All Elite Wrestling in 2019, becoming regular fixtures in the promotion’s tag-team division. 

Their contracts with AEW expired in June, and Williams had since returned to the independent circuit, again wrestling alongside The Blade. His final months included appearances across the United States before Saturday’s event in Millvale. 

Tributes spread quickly through both wrestling and music. Enjoy Wrestling posted a two-word farewell, “Butcher Forever”, after his death was confirmed. AEW said Williams had successfully crossed from music into professional wrestling and had earned deep respect from colleagues inside and outside the ring. 

Wrestlers including Matt Hardy, William Regal, Willow Nightingale and QT Marshall were among those who publicly remembered Williams, often describing a personality far gentler than the imposing, heavily tattooed character he portrayed in the ring. 

His career was notable not simply because he worked in two demanding professions, but because he reached a national stage in wrestling relatively late, moving from crowded concert venues to televised wrestling arenas without entirely leaving his first career behind.

Williams died less than three months after his AEW run ended, while still active in both wrestling and music. The official medical cause of his death remained pending on Monday.