The 48-year-old performer known as The Butcher received CPR after collapsing during an independent wrestling event near Pittsburgh.
MILLVALE, Pa. — Andy Williams, the professional wrestler known as The Butcher and a founding guitarist of metalcore band Every Time I Die, died Saturday after suffering a medical emergency during a wrestling match near Pittsburgh. He was 48.
Williams collapsed near the end of a tag team match at Enjoy Wrestling’s Five Years event at Mr. Smalls Theatre in Millvale on Sept. 5. Medical staff at the venue immediately began treating him and administered CPR until an ambulance arrived, the promotion said. Williams was taken to a hospital, where the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office said he was pronounced dead at 9:43 p.m. The official cause and manner of death had not been released Sunday.
Williams was wrestling alongside his longtime partner Jesse Guilmette, known professionally as The Blade, against the team TME when the emergency occurred. Enjoy Wrestling ended the event after Williams collapsed and sent the audience home while staff members went to the hospital. People who attended the show told wrestling outlet POST Wrestling that Williams appeared to be struggling near the conclusion of the match before going down. Medical personnel performed chest compressions and used an automated external defibrillator before he was taken from the venue.
Dispatch audio reported by TMZ referred to a male wrestler hitting his head on a ring post during the event. Authorities had not established whether that reported impact caused or contributed to Williams’ death. A co-owner of Enjoy Wrestling told CBS Pittsburgh on Sunday that Williams’ symptoms appeared consistent with a cardiac event, but that assessment was not an official medical finding. The medical examiner had not announced a cause of death, and Millvale police were investigating the circumstances surrounding the emergency.
All Elite Wrestling announced Williams’ death Sunday and described him as a musician who successfully moved into professional wrestling and earned the respect of people in both fields. Williams and Guilmette joined AEW in 2019 as The Butcher and The Blade, becoming a familiar tag team during the company’s early years. Their AEW contracts expired in June 2026, and the pair had recently returned to wrestling regularly on independent shows.
The team made its AEW television debut in November 2019 alongside The Bunny, appearing on Dynamite and attacking Cody Rhodes. Williams later competed in both tag-team and singles matches and worked with several groups during his run with the promotion. His final AEW match aired on Collision in February 2025, according to POST Wrestling. After leaving AEW, Williams remained active and wrestled Josh Barnett at an independent event in Brooklyn in August, part of a renewed schedule outside the national promotion.
Long before he became known to national wrestling audiences, Williams built a career in heavy music. Born Dec. 12, 1977, in the Buffalo, New York, area, he helped form Every Time I Die in 1998 and remained one of the band’s guitarists throughout its more than two-decade run. The influential metalcore group released nine studio albums before breaking up in January 2022. Williams spent years balancing touring and recording with an increasingly active professional wrestling career.
Williams began pursuing wrestling seriously after he was already established as a musician. He worked a full singles match in 2016 and began teaming regularly with Guilmette the following year. The partnership eventually led to appearances for several independent promotions before AEW signed the pair. Williams often discussed the similarities he saw between writing music and constructing a wrestling match, describing both as performances built around shifts in pace, tension and release.
After Every Time I Die ended, Williams returned to recording with Atomic Rule, a heavy band he formed in 2023. The group released new music while Williams continued wrestling. On the same day as his final match, Williams appeared in a video discussing newly written Atomic Rule material and future plans for the band. His death prompted tributes from across both industries, including wrestlers Matt Hardy, Josh Alexander and Sammy Guevara and musicians who had worked with or known him.
Several colleagues remembered Williams for a personality that contrasted with his imposing wrestling character. AEW said he was highly respected by his peers, while wrestlers and musicians described him in memorial posts as generous, funny and supportive. Former Every Time I Die guitarist Jordan Buckley had asked followers to pray for Williams on Saturday night while news of the medical emergency was still developing. Tributes continued Sunday after his death was confirmed.
Authorities had not announced an official cause or manner of death as of Sunday night. The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office and Millvale police were handling the investigation, while the wrestling and music communities continued to mourn a performer whose career spanned more than two decades on concert stages and roughly a decade in professional wrestling.
Author note: Last updated September 6, 2026.