Andy ‘The Butcher’ Williams, Musician and Wrestler, Dies After Match — SkimNews
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- Andy 'The Butcher' Williams collapsed at the end of his match in Millvale, Pennsylvania, on Saturday and was pronounced dead at the hospital at age 48, with the rest of the Enjoy Wrestling card canceled.
- All Elite Wrestling, Williams' most recent major promoter, released a statement calling him "a trailblazing musician" who made "a successful transition into the world of professional wrestling and was incredibly respected by his peers."
- Williams co-founded the Buffalo, N.Y. metalcore band Every Time I Die in 1998; the group released nine albums before disbanding in 2022.
- Atomic Rule, Williams' newer band, was set to tour the West Coast in November with GWAR — hours before his death, he had posted that the group had "finally found our feet planted to this beautiful earth and now we're running full speed."
- Williams started wrestling on the independent circuit in 2015 at 37, joined AEW in 2019 alongside partner Jesse Guilmette ("The Blade"), and returned to indie wrestling after their AEW contracts expired in June.
- Williams was competing alongside Guilmette at Enjoy Wrestling's Five Years event when he collapsed, per the source.
Why it matters: Williams' death leaves Atomic Rule's November GWAR tour in limbo and cuts short a wrestler-musician's return to the independent circuit where he'd built his reputation before signing with AEW in 2019.
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