Reports came in last night that pro wrestler Andy Willliams, better known as The Butcher from his lengthy AEW and Ring of Honor run, collapsed at a independent wrestling show in Pittsburgh. Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp soon confirmed, and the promotion, Enjoy Wrestling, issued a statement saying Williams was “immediately” seen by its medical staff, and given CPR until the ambulance arrived. Enjoy then ended the show, and went to the hospital themselves.
An unfortunate internet back-and-forth ensued over
new about Williams condition. Then this morning, TMZ reported that Williams had been pronounced dead:
The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office tells TMZ … Williams passed away… following his health crisis at Mr. Small’s Theater in Millvale, PA.
Enjoy Wrestling posted this moments later.
Butcher Forever.
According to TMZ’s report, Williams was tagging with his longtime partner The Blade (fka Pepper Parks and Braxton Sutter, real name Jesse Guilmette) when he collapsed.
A Josh Barnett trainee from Buffalo, New York, Williams’ start in pro wrestling was delayed by a knee injury, but he was quickly noticed on the indies in the late 2010s and joined AEW with Blade and Blade’s then-wife Bunny (aka Allie) on 2019’s first-ever episode of Dynamite. The act was a prominent one in the early years of Tony Khan’s promotion, mainly as midcarders, but they did get a televised Tag title shot against Lucha Bros in September of 2021. Williams continued in that role with Blade out to injury, and recently the act worked mostly in ROH. Word was their contracts expired in June.
Williams also played guitar in the band Every Time I Die from its inception until he and co-founder Jordan Buckley announced the group’s break-up in 2022.
This will be an ongoing story, but for now we join the pro wrestling community and Andy Willliams’ friends and family in mourning him. We’ll also hope to watch The Butcher tear it up in the ring in the next life, or whatever follows this one for us all.
May he rest in peace.
