Andy Williams (The Butcher)

Andrew J. Williams was born on December 12, 1977, in Buffalo, New York, and raised with roots in nearby North Tonawanda. Before he was a touring guitarist or a national television wrestler, he wanted the ring. He trained for about six months at Renegade Wrestling Association in Ontario, Canada, until a knee injury sidelined him. During that layoff he learned guitar. With lead guitarist Jordan Buckley and drummer Michael Novak he helped form Every Time I Die in 1998, the Buffalo metalcore band that would define a generation of chaotic, Southern-tinged hardcore for more than two decades.

Williams played rhythm guitar on every Every Time I Die release, from early Ferret-era records through Epitaph albums including Low Teens (2016) and the final studio album Radical (October 22, 2021). Kerrang! named Radical its album of the year for 2021. Bandmates and peers often noted his streak of never missing a live show for roughly twenty-two years, until January 2020, when he chose an AEW Bash at the Beach six-man tag with MJF and The Blade against Q. T. Marshall, Diamond Dallas Page, and Dustin Rhodes over a Paris date with the band. COVID-19 later froze touring plans while Florida still treated wrestling as essential business, letting him keep working for All Elite Wrestling from the Jacksonville hub while Every Time I Die finished writing and recording Radical.

The band's end was public and painful. On January 17, 2022, Williams and Jordan Buckley announced on social media that Every Time I Die was over, capping a bitter split with vocalist Keith Buckley after final hometown "'Tid the Season" shows in December 2021. Williams posted simply, "RIP ETID '98-'21." Other members formed new projects; Williams put both feet into wrestling and, years later, returned to music with Atomic Rule, a metalcore lineup reported in 2026 coverage as including vocalist James Henderson, bassist Travis Bennington, and drummer Kevin Boutot. In August 2026 he told followers he was working on a history project about Every Time I Die and that a full reunion did not look likely.

Wrestling never left him. In the mid-2010s he resumed training with Josh Barnett and at Grapplers Anonymous in Lackawanna, and with longtime friend Jesse Guilmette. Independent run-ins at Smash Wrestling and Progress Wrestling in 2015 led to a singles debut loss to Tarik at Smash's Any Given Sunday 4 on March 20, 2016 (often dated as his pro debut). A torn meniscus followed; he still left on tour with Every Time I Die days later. By September 2017 he and Guilmette (as Braxton Sutter / The Blade) were a regular tag team, briefly holding the Pro Wrestling Rampage Tag Team Championship. As The Butcher and The Blade they became Northeast independent fixtures.

On the November 27, 2019, episode of AEW Dynamite, The Butcher debuted with The Blade and The Bunny by attacking Cody, later revealed as MJF's hired guns. The duo spent nearly seven years in AEW and sister promotion Ring of Honor: feuds and alliances with Jurassic Express, Eddie Kingston, the Lucha Brothers / Death Triangle, Matt Hardy's Hardy Family Office, Andrade, Kip Sabian, Best Friends, and others; TNT and tag title contention; battle royals; and long stretches of Rampage and ROH TV. Injuries (thumb, torn biceps after a Tomohiro Ishii superplex in November 2021) interrupted TV time. When Guilmette was out with a serious back injury, Williams worked more singles matches. Fightful reported in June 2026 that The Butcher and The Blade's AEW contracts had expired, ending their AEW tenure; they returned to independents. POST Wrestling noted a recent match against trainer Josh Barnett and said Williams's final AEW appearance was on the February 22, 2025, Collision against Gabe Kidd.

On September 5, 2026, at Enjoy Wrestling's Five-Year Anniversary at Mr. Smalls Theatre in Millvale, Pennsylvania, Williams teamed with The Blade against TME. Near the finish he became unsteady, collapsed, received CPR and AED care from staff and paramedics, and was taken by ambulance to Allegheny General Hospital. The rest of the show was canceled. After hours of conflicting social-media reports, TMZ reported that the Allegheny County Medical Examiner's Office confirmed his death. He was 48. A cause of death has not been made public. Enjoy Wrestling posted "Butcher Forever." Tributes came quickly from Matt Hardy, Corey Graves, Josh Alexander, QT Marshall, and many others across music and wrestling.

Williams told Renee Paquette on The Sessions that he had dyslexia. On X he called Guilmette the brother life gave him. He leaves a catalog of nine studio albums with one of metalcore's most beloved live bands, and a second career as The Butcher, the big man from Buffalo who made the leap from Warped Tour stages to Dynamite in his forties and kept going until the night he fell in Millvale.