Women's wrestling during the late 90s to early 2000s took a backseat in the Attitude Era. Women were viewed as eye candy and matches would last less than five minutes. The Women's Championship was reactivated in late 1998, but WWE did not even have a strong women's roster at the time.
Many untrained wrestlers were the Women's Champion which certainly tarnished the lineage of the Women's Championship. However, some women who won the title brought instantly credibility back to the title and maximized the minutes they had as champions.
12 Hervina (Harvey Wippleman)
The lowest point for the WWF Women's Championship came on the January 31st, 2000 edition of Monday Night Raw when a man won the title. Harvey Wippleman was disguised as a woman and called himself Hervina. He challenged The Kat for the title in a dreadful Lumberjill Snowbunny match.
Wippleman made history as the first man to win the Women's Championship. It epitomized the state of the Women's Championship at the time. Thankfully, on the following episode of Smackdown, Jacqueline ended Wippleman's reign as Women's Champion in under one minute.
11 Debra
WWE did not care about the Women's Championship in the early part of the '90s as matches continued to be terrible. Another low moment for the Women's Championship occurred on the May 10, 1999, episode of Raw. Sable retained the Women's Championship against Debra in an Evening Gown match.
However, Commissioner Shawn Michaels intervened and reversed the decision. He awarded Debra the Women's Championship as her clothes were removed. It was a daft decision as Debra was managing Jeff Jarrett and she was not a trained competitor by any stretch of the imagination. Mercifully, Ivory rescued the title by winning the championship a month later on Raw.
10 The Fabulous Moolah
The Fabulous Moolah is one of the best WWE Women's Champions of all time. Moolah was the first Women's Champion and held the title for an unprecedented 28 years from 1956-1984. Furthermore, Moolah was past her prime when she upset Ivory for the Women's Championship at No Mercy 1999.
Moolah became the oldest Women's Champion at the age of 76 and her reign was disastrous. She clearly could not go in the ring anymore and had no business holding the title. Ivory regained the championship eight days later on Raw.
9 The Kat
The Women's Championship continued to be a joke in the Attitude Era. At Armageddon 1999, The Kat outlasted reigning champion Ivory, Jacqueline, and BB in a Four-way Evening Gown elimination match in a pool to capture the title.
The Kat could not wrestle, and she began managing Chyna. The Kat retained the Women's Championship in a rematch with Ivory on an episode of Smackdown with Chyna giving her the huge assist. Her reign was a mess from start to finish with Harvey Wippleman, a man beating her for the title at the end of January 2000.
8 Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley
A lengthy Women's Championship run does not necessarily mean that it is a great one. Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley upset Jacqueline on the final Smackdown before WrestleMania 2000 to clinch the title.
McMahon and her husband Triple H were the dominant duo in 2000 both walking into WrestleMania as champions. The Women's Championship was virtually a prop with Stephanie retaining the title twice in matches against Lita with DX ally Tori and friend Kurt Angle helping her respectively. McMahon's 143-day reign came to a halt by Lita in August, and she did nothing to elevate the title.
7 Jacqueline
Jacqueline made history as the first black woman to capture the WWF Women's Championship. Jacqueline was a trained competitor and she had the privilege of being the first Women's Champion in three years, when she defeated her rival Sable in September 1998.
Unfortunately for Jacqueline, her two Women's Championship reigns were ended by untrained wrestlers. Sable defeated her at the 1998 Survivor Series, and aforementioned, Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley dethroned Jacqueline in March 2000. Jacqueline deserved better and she could have taken the Women's Championship to new heights if she could have had a rivalry with great workers like Ivory.
6 Chyna
In late 2000, Chyna began a feud with Right to Censor and Women's Champion Ivory. The Ninth Wonder of the World was already a two-time Intercontinental Champion, and she was not motivated by having to work with women.
However, had Chyna been motivated she could have been a great Women's Champion and she could have spearheaded the women's division and taken it to the next level. Chyna defeated Ivory to capture the Women's Championship at WrestleMania X-Seven. She retained the title twice against Ivory in a rematch and her final WWF match at Judgment Day 2001 over Lita. Chyna held the title for over 200 days but she departed the WWF in late 2001.
5 Sable
Whilst Sable was not the finished productin the ring, she certainly improved. Sable's Women's Championship run was not the greatest but she gave the title some sort of stability in 1999.
At Royal Rumble 1999, Sable retained the title against Luna Vachon in an underrated leather strap match. Sable also became the first woman in five years to successfully defend the title at WrestleMania XV with a victory over Tori. Nevertheless, she held the title for 175 days before dropping the title to Debra in controversial circumstances.
4 Lita
Once Lita was no longer managing Essa Rios, she came into her own once she sided with The Hardy Boyz in 2000 to form Team Xtreme. Lita's high-risk style of wrestling was amazing and she was one of the best women to watch in the Attitude Era.
Lita finally ended Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley's dreadful Women's Championship reign in the main event of Raw in August. Furthermore, Lita's maiden Women's Championship run lasted 72 days, losing the title to Ivory but she would have to wait four years to win another Women's Championship.
3 Trish Stratus
2001 saw the emergence of Trish Stratus as a legitimate threat to the WWF Women's Championship. Trish captured the first of her seven Women's Championships in a Six-pack challenge at Survivor Series by pinning Ivory.
Trish's first two pay-per-view title defenses were against arguably the two toughest women in WWE history. She retained the title against Jacqueline at Vengeance, and she overcame one of her fiercest rivals Jazz at the 2002 Royal Rumble. Trish's first Women's Championship reign lasted a respectable 77 days, losing the title to Jazz but it was a sign of things to come for Trish.
2 Jazz
Jazz joined WWE on the final day of the Invasion storyline at Survivor Series 2001. However, Jazz's brief cameo showed that she was a tough woman and was not to be messed around with.
On the February 6th, 2002 edition of Raw, Jazz dethroned Trish Stratus to become the second black WWF Women's Champion. Jazz's rivalry with Trish enhanced Trish's in-ring skills. Moreover, Jazz was an outstanding in-ring worker, and she became the final Women's Champion under the WWF banner.
She built on her momentum by retaining the title against both Trish and Lita at WrestleMania X8, and at Backlash against Trish, which is a great achievement for someone of Jazz's caliber with her reign lasting 97 days.
1 Ivory
No woman won the Women's Championship more times than Ivory in the Attitude Era. Ivory became a three-time WWF Women's Champion which is a phenomenal achievement. Ivory defeated the likes of Debra, The Fabulous Moolah, and Lita for her three reigns as champion. The great thing about Ivory being the Women's Champion is that she was an established in-ring wrestler and could speak on the mic.
However, Ivory's third Women's Championship reign as a member of Right to Censor was her best run with the gold. Her major rivalry with Chyna was the first significant feud involving the Women's Championship. Ivory retained the championship against Chyna at the 2001 Royal Rumble but failed to repeat the trick at WrestleMania X-Seven.
Ivory collectively held the title for 320 days which she deserves a lot of credit. It has been proven that Ivory's successors in Moolah, The Kat, and Chyna have failed to replicate her great runs with the gold by having poor reigns of their own.