This week in WWE history (Jan 24-30) RAW is canceled, CM Punk walks out  

The annual WWE Royal Rumble has dominated this week's news and rumors regarding surprises and returns have been rife.

Ronda Rousey and Brock Lesnar were the stars who walked out as the winners of their respective matches last night with Lesnar winning his second Rumble match, almost two decades after his original victory.

The end of January has annually been the time where the company presents their Royal Rumble and kickstarts the Road to WrestleMania, so it appears that this week in history was dominated by these shows.

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#5. The Royal Rumble makes its debut in WWE - January 24th, 1988

The Royal Rumble was the brainchild of former WWE star and producer Pat Patterson, and his show finally became a reality back in 1988.

The first-ever match saw just 20 participants battle it out with "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan being the final man standing and making history as the first-ever winner.

Legends Jake "The Snake" Roberts, The Ultimate Warrior, Harley Race and Bret Hart were all part of the match but came up short to WWE Hall of Famer Duggan.

Of course, this wasn't the only Royal Rumble to take place today, since Yokozuna was able to outlast 29 other men and eliminate Randy Savage en route to victory in the 1993 match.

Six years later, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon eliminated Stone Cold Steve Austin to win the 1999 Royal Rumble match and book his place in the WrestleMania main event.

The 1999 Rumble event also famously saw The Rock defeat Mick Foley in one of the most intense and violent "I Quit" matches in the history of the company.

The 2016 Royal Rumble match is the final match to take place on this day and this match saw Roman Reigns forced to defend his championship in the match for the first time.

Triple H last eliminated Dean Ambrose to win the match and become the new Champion. This was Triple H's second Rumble win after being victorious in the 2002 Rumble match 14 years prior.

#4. The forgotten Royal Rumble takes place - January 25th, 2004

Chris Benoit has mostly been written out of the history books following the end of his career back in 2007. This meant that the 2004 Royal Rumble match became a near-forgotten event.

Benoit was victorious in the Rumble by last eliminating The Big Show before going on to wrestle in WrestleMania's main event against Triple H and Shawn Michaels. Benoit and his best friend Eddie Guerrero were both victorious at WrestleMania 20 and celebrated together to end the show.

Five years later, Randy Orton won his first Royal Rumble match when he was able to overcome the threat of Triple H to book his place in the WrestleMania main event.

The 2015 Royal Rumble match is the final one to take place on this day and saw Roman Reigns come out on top after eliminating Rusev. The Rock was on-hand to celebrate with his family member, as it became clear that the WWE Universe was not accepting Reigns in the position in the way that WWE had hoped.

#3. WWE RAW is canceled - January 26th 2015

The show must go on and WWE has been able to push through a pandemic in recent years to continue to provide the WWE Universe with their weekly dose of wrestling action.

If a pandemic wasn't able to stop WWE, it's hard to imagine a snowstorm being able to back in 2015.

A travel ban was imposed on the state of Connecticut the day after the 2015 Royal Rumble match, which meant that superstars were unable to make the trip to the show.

The episode instead featured interviews as well as replays from The Royal Rumble the night before. This was only the second time in history that the company had canceled their flagship show.

The first was back in June 2007 following The Chris Benoit tragedy. The company initially aired a tribute to the former champion before later pulling the episode.

Also on this day, Batista won the 2014 Royal Rumble match by last eliminating Roman Reigns, who was taking part in his debut Rumble match.

#2. Rey Mysterio makes history enroute to a Royal Rumble victory - January 29th, 2006

Rey Mysterio entered the 2006 Royal Rumble match at number two and lasted over an hour in order to win. Randy Orton and Mysterio were the final two and this later tied up a deeply personal feud between the two men that would lead them to the WrestleMania main event.

Mysterio was victorious in the triple threat match at WrestleMania 22 when he was able to defeat both Randy Orton and Kurt Angle.

Mysterio was the subject of a huge push following the death of his close friend Eddie Guerrero the year before and it culminated in his first World Championship win at WrestleMania.

Also on this day, Sheamus won the 2012 Royal Rumble match when he was able to eliminate Chris Jericho to book his place in the WWE Championship match against Daniel Bryan at WrestleMania.

Randy Orton also won the 30th annual Royal Rumble match back in 2017 and then went on to defeat Bray Wyatt for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania.

#1. CM Punk walks out of WWE - January 27th, 2014

CM Punk took part in the 2014 Royal Rumble match before then making the decision to walk out of WWE the following night.

Punk later released a podcast where he noted all of his issues with the company, including the fact that he was struggling with a Staph Infection. WWE went on to fire CM Punk a few months later in April when it became clear that he was in breach of contract.

Punk was made aware that he had been fired on the day of his wedding day to fellow superstar AJ Lee.

Punk remained out of the ring for more than seven years before returning with AEW in 2021.

Also on this day, John Cena won two Royal Rumble matches, his first coming in 2008 when he was able to eliminate Triple H to book his place in WrestleMania's main event.

Cena later won the 2013 Royal Rumble match, this time going on to book his place in the WrestleMania main event against The Rock.