I'm aware that the events in Stampede aren't canon. However, since Oda supervised it, perhaps some of the ideas are?
If you recall the Zoro v Fujitora scene, Zoro manages to cut Fujitora's meteor cleanly in half. However, that isn't enough to stop the threat. (He has the same problem against Pica, he is able to cut Pika cleanly in half and although very impressive, this isn't enough to stop the threat). Mihawk interferes and sends a slash which doesn't cut it in half like Zoro's but instead makes the meteor blow up.
I think normal Ryuo for swordsmen is the ability to cut/not cut what you want and advanced Ryuo is to destroy what you want to cut from the inside.
So once Zoro learns advanced Ryuo, he will be able to send slashes that make things explode.