Matt Cardona Cosplayed As Vince McMahon At GCW Show
A former WWE Superstar has taken his ring gear to the next level as he appeared at a show bearing an uncanny resemblance to WWE Chairman Vince McMahon. What may surprise you is that was the former Zack Ryder that did it.
Although McMahon is best known for his array of dapper suits, there was a time in 2007 where the WWE Chairman adopted an altogether different look. After suffering the humiliation of being shaved bald by Donald Trump at WrestleMania 23, McMahon did his best to keep his bald head under wraps.
When Vince McMahon entered an unlikely feud with Bobby Lashley for the ECW Championship over the summer, he wore an all-black ensemble of jeans, a sweater, and durag. ‘Durag Vince’ is still fondly remembered today and he wore his unusual choice of headgear proudly alongside the ECW Title that he, son Shane, and Umaga managed to purloin from Lashley.
Now Matt Cardona, himself an unpopular champion of Game Changer Wrestling has cosplayed as ‘Durag Vince’ at GCW’s pay-per-view event Off The Rails. Cardona successfully defended the title ‘he famously won from the ultra-violent Nick Gage against Sam Stackhouse at the event.
Over in #GCW, Matt Cardona is showing up sporting their championship wearing outfits inspired by Vince McMahon’s ECW Title run.
This guy really, really gets it doesn’t he? @GCWrestling_@TheMattCardonapic.twitter.com/1eLveYe9oj
— Hooked On Wrestling (@HOWrestlingUK) August 21, 2021
Cardona spent over a decade as part of WWE and is best remembered as “Long Island Iced-Z” Zack Ryder. Ryder held the WWE Tag Team Championship, the US Championship, and won the Intercontinental Championship in front of the biggest WWE crowd ever at WrestleMania 32. His time in the company came to an end in April 2020 when WWE made their first round of cuts (during a global pandemic) to the roster that they have continued well into 2021.
Since leaving WWE, Cardona has appeared for both AEW and IMPACT Wrestling as well as winning the top prize in GCW. On the same night as Cardona’s GCW appearance, he was featured on IMPACT’s Emergence show where he defeated Rohit Raju with fiancée Chelsea Green in his corner. In the main event of that show, Cardona’s former tag team partner Brian Myers challenged Christian Cage for the IMPACT World Championship. Cage was able to retain his title ahead of his AEW All Out PPV encounter with Kenny Omega.