Andy Williams, the co-founding guitarist of metalcore outfit Every Time I Die who also wrestled professionally as “The Butcher”, died after suffering a medical incident at a wrestling show on Saturday night (September 5th). He was 48 years old.
Williams’ tag-team “The Butcher and the Blade” were taking part in a match as part of Enjoy Wrestling’s fifth anniversary event at Millvale, Pennsylvania’s Mr. Smalls Theatre.
A representative from the wrestling company confirmed over X that Williams collapsed near the end of their championship match against rival team TME. Staff doctors were on-hand to perform CPR on Williams until paramedics arrived, and the wrestler was then taken to hospital. The show was called off at this point.
TMZ confirmed Williams’ passing with the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Williams had been wrestling as part of the tag-team with Jesse “The Blade” Guilmette since 2017, having undertaken runs with wrestling promotions including Bar Wrestling, Capital City Championship Combat, and a high-profile 7-year run with All Elite Wrestling from 2019 until earlier this year.
For the heavy music community, Williams was also famous for co-founding Buffalo, New York, metalcore outfit Every Time I Die in 1998. He played rhythm guitar for the band until their break-up in 2022, recording nine full-length releases for labels like Ferret Music and Epitaph Records. The last of which was 2021’s Radical.
Williams would put a larger focus on his wrestling career following ETID’s break-up, but began a project called Atomic Rule in 2023.
The group played their first formal show as an instrumental trio at the tail-end of 2024, and then performed with vocalist James Henderson while opening for Better Lovers — featuring three other ex-ETID members — in Athens, Georgia, last year. Their final show with Williams was July 18th at the Oscura in Bradenton, Florida. They were due to go on tour with GWAR later this fall.
Atomic Rule released the three-song WITH SKULL CRUSHING FORCE EP in September of 2025, and followed it up with their The Golden Rose EP that December. Sadly, Williams posted on the band’s Instagram account yesterday that they’d just finished a round of demo recordings for an upcoming project.
Revolver sends our deepest condolences to Williams’ family, friends and fans.