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The beginning of a new era, but still a long way to go (2001 to 2006)
Trish Stratus debuted in the WWF in 2000 as a valet. She was more of a mantle piece than a person. In just a short period of time, she would become a great character and a fixture in the company. After gaining freedom from Vince McMahon in early-2001, Trish started to become a serious competitor, and she improved at a very fast pace. When Chyna left the WWF in 2001, the Women's Championship was vacated. Capitalizing on her burgeoning in-ring ability and her extreme popularity, she would win the vacant Women's title at Survivor Series in a six-pack challenge with 5 other legitimate wrestlers.
These women were Jazz, Jacqueline (who was a good wrestler despite the antics of the late 90s), Ivory, Lita, and Molly Holly. While the Championship wasn't recognized the way many true fans of women's wrestling would have preferred, the title had begun to start meaning something. Still, most matches were short, and outside of a few outstanding exceptions were very bad at worst, and average-to-pretty good at best. The main cast of women in this time period was Trish Stratus, Jazz, Molly Holly, Victoria, Gail Kim (very briefly), Lita, and at the tail end of the era, Mickie James.
There were some very memorable matches during this stretch. Some that immediately come to mind include Trish Stratus vs. Victoria in a Hardcore match at Survivor Series 2002 (they had a number of very good matches including a Street Fight in 2003) as well as the historic Lita vs. Trish Stratus match in the main event of RAW on December 6, 2004 (featuring Lita's scary suicide dive). Trish Stratus vs. Mickie James at WrestleMania 22 and Trish's farewell match later that year against Lita at Unforgiven 2006. In case you were wondering, Trish was really good.
That's not to say that many other women didn't have good matches during these years, but the title was still treated as one of, if not the, least important belt in the company, and often the talented women were given very little time to show off their considerable talent.
