Josh Stewart of Patch Media talks to Merrick, Long Island’s own WWE star Zack Ryder about the upcoming Royal Rumble.

Easy Ryder: Merrick’s Own Zack Ryder Pumped for Royal Rumble
Merrick’s WWE Superstar is looking forward to making his hometown proud at Royal Rumble.
By Josh Stewart

Zack Ryder’s battle cry–”Woo Woo Woo”–could conceivably offend pro wrestling purists who recognize that chant as belonging to one “Nature Boy” Ric Flair.

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“It’s a little different, it’s my own little flavor,” counters Ryder.

And there you have the dilemma that faces today’s WWE Superstars: Can you capture what made past competitors iconic without coming off as a cheap facsimile?

To many the jury is still out on Merrick native Ryder, one of 30 entrants in Jan. 31’s Royal Rumble (8 p.m., pay-per-view). But for a guy who endured countless snide remarks in the hallways of Calhoun High School for wearing wrestling T-shirts, holding up a WWE Tag Team Championship belt less than five years later and six miles away gives him the right to declare victory.

That magic moment came in July of 2008, when he teamed with Glen Cove native Curt Hawkins at Nassau Coliseum during The Great American Bash. His family was there, along with the friends he played wrestling video games with–the ones who didn’t smirk when he entered Deer Park’s New York Wrestling Connection in 2004 to train for the dream.

He’s now less than a year into his singles career, sporting the first one-legged tights in an athletic arena since Florence Griffith-Joyner, aka Flo-Jo, went there more than two decades ago. Throw in a cocky, ladies man persona that could have him moonlighting as an extra on Jersey Shore, and Ryder is one of the mainstays of ECW (Syfy, Tuesdays at 10 p.m.).

“When Curt Hawkins and I split up I knew I couldn’t just be a regular guy,” Ryder explains. “I needed something to stand out. And it’s obvious looking at me, I don’t look at all like anybody else.”

This would be a pretty good time to stand out. WWE newbies like Drew McIntyre and Sheamus are getting a shot at carrying major singles titles as the company looks to find its next “Stone Cold” Steve Austin or The Rock. Ryder has enough on his plate coming from the same island as Mick Foley, which is equivalent to making your own mark as a pianist in the place that produced Billy Joel.

While Ryder just moved from his hometown to Long Beach so he could step straight from his apartment to the sand, he’s still close to those Merrick friends who will get together for the Rumble and guess what number he draws to enter the fray.

“I always had friends over, we always put bets on what number would win the Royal Rumble,” says Ryder, who doesn’t even turn 25 until May. “And this year I know my friends are going to be home watching it, and one of them them is going to pick my number. And I’m going to come out of the curtain and it’ll be crazy for them to see me on TV. And it’ll be crazy for me out there knowing that I could possibly win the Royal Rumble and go on to WrestleMania.”

To read the full article go to http://merrick.patch.com/articles/easy-ryder

By Josh Stewart