Andrew Williams, rhythm guitarist for metalcore band Every Time I Die and professional wrestler known as The Butcher,
died Saturday at age 48 after collapsing during an independent wrestling match in Millvale, Pennsylvania, according to All Elite Wrestling.
The death of the musician and athlete drew immediate mourning from across the heavy music and professional wrestling communities. Williams spent nearly a quarter-century shaping modern metalcore before launching a second career in the ring that eventually led to a seven-year run on television.
Medical Emergency at Mr. Small’s Theatre
Williams was performing at an independent show hosted by Enjoy Wrestling at Mr. Small’s Theatre in Millvale, Pennsylvania, on Saturday night. Teamed alongside his longtime tag team partner Jesse The Blade
Guilmette to face TME, Williams experienced distress near the conclusion of the bout.
Eyewitnesses reported that the match reached an early finish as Williams struggled near the ropes before going down outside the ring. The promotion released an official statement detailing the immediate response from personnel at the venue.
“Andy collapsed at the end of his match this evening, Our doctors on staff tended to him immediately, administering CPR until the ambulance arrived.”
Enjoy Wrestling, via NBC News
Event staff, audience members, police, and emergency medical technicians worked in unison to clear a path, administer chest compressions, apply ice, and use an Automated External Defibrillator before transporting him to a hospital, POST Wrestling reported based on eyewitness accounts.
From Buffalo Factories to Every Time I Die
Raised in the Buffalo, New York, area, Williams grew up anticipating a traditional path working in a factory alongside relatives. Struggling with learning disabilities, including dyslexia, that hindered his ability to read standard musical notation, he sought an escape from industrial work.
Finding that the guitar just made sense
despite his reading barriers, Williams co-founded Every Time I Die in 1998. He served as the group’s rhythm guitarist through its disbandment in 2022, performing on all nine of the band’s studio albums, which concluded with 2021’s Radical.
Epitaph Records, which signed the group in 2008, noted that the band became known for turning chaos into catharsis, pairing breakneck intensity with anthemic hooks and off-kilter grooves. Following Every Time I Die’s breakup, Williams formed a new band, Atomic Rule, which released a demo EP in 2025.
Transforming Into The Butcher
in the Ring
Though Williams had loved professional wrestling since childhood, his ambition to step between the ropes crystallized after he attended a Pro Wrestling Guerrilla independent show around 2014. At age 37, he wrestled his first full match in 2015, trading his easygoing demeanor for a hard-hitting persona.
Performing as The Butcher,
he formed a tag team alongside Jesse Guilmette known as The Butcher and The Blade.
After four years on the independent circuit, Williams debuted on All Elite Wrestling in 2019, maintaining a tenure with AEW and sister circuit Ring of Honor that concluded in June 2026.
Williams frequently remarked on the creative parallels between his two disciplines. In a 2025 appearance on the HardLore
podcast, he explained that anyone who’s written a song can wrestle a wrestling match,
adding that putting together a match mirrors structuring a song with its ups and downs, there’s peaks and valleys.
Final Projects and Tributes Across Entertainment
Just hours before his death, Williams appeared in an Instagram video for Atomic Rule, announcing that the band had finished writing new material and planned to tour with Gwar in November and December. Get ready, because Atomic Rule is going to be coming and smashing it,
he told followers.
Colleagues and musicians flooded social media with tributes remembering his warmth and intellect. Andy Williams was so smart and cultured that it made both his chosen careers all the more insane,
wrote RJ City, highlighting that the performer was the polar opposite of his menacing in-ring appearance.
Former AEW women’s world champion Willow Nightingale credited Williams with advocating for her career before she signed with the company. He had every right to have an ego, but he didn’t,
Nightingale noted. He reached his hand out and did what he could to help others.
