The first example of ring-closing metathesis was reported by Dider Villemin in 1980 when he synthesized an Exaltolide precursor using a WCl/MeSn catalyzed metathesis cyclization in 60-65% yield depending on ring size (A).  In the following months, Jiro Tsuji reported a similar metathesis reaction describing the preparation of a macrolide catalyzed by WCl and dimethyltitanocene (CpTiMe) in a modest 17.9% yield (B).  Tsuji describes the olefin metathesis reaction as “…potentially useful in organic synthesis” and addresses the need for the development of a more versatile catalyst to tolerate various functional groups. 
In 1987, Siegfried Warwel and Hans Kaitker published a synthesis of symmetric macrocycles through a cross-metathesis dimerization of starting cycloolefins to afford C, C, and C dienes in 58-74% yield, as well as C in 30% yield, using ReO on AlO and MeSn for catalyst activation.
After a decade since its initial discovery, Grubbs and Fu published two influential reports in 1992 detailing the synthesis of O- and N- heterocycles via RCM utilizing Schrock’s molybdenum alkylidene catalysts, which had proven more robust and functional group tolerant than the tungsten chloride catalysts.  The synthetic route allowed access to dihydropyrans in high yield (89-93%) from readily available starting materials. In addition, synthesis of substituted pyrrolines, tetrahydropyridines, and amides were illustrated in modest to high yield (73-89% ). The driving force for the cyclization reaction was attributed to entropic favorability by forming two molecules per one molecule of starting material. The loss of the second molecule, ethylene, a highly volatile gas, drives the reaction in the forward direction according to Le Châtelier's principle.
In 1993, Grubbs and others not only published a report on carbocycle synthesis using a molybdenum catalyst, but also detailed the initial use of a novel ruthenium carbene complex for metathesis reactions, which later became a popular catalyst due to its extraordinary utility. The ruthenium catalysts are not sensitive to air and moisture, unlike the molybdenum catalysts. The ruthenium catalysts, known better as the Grubbs Catalysts, as well as molybdenum catalysts, or Schrock’s Catalysts, are still used today for many metathesis reactions, including RCM. Overall, it was shown that metal-catalyzed RCM reactions were very effective in C-C bond forming reactions, and would prove of great importance in organic synthesis, chemical biology, materials science, and various other fields to access a wide variety of unsaturated and highly functionalized cyclic analogues.