Take a bow, Lyra Valkyria. The 28-year-old former NXT champ — who got her main roster promotion less than a year ago — was crowned the WWE’s first-ever Women’s Intercontinental Champion after beating Dakota Kai on Monday night’s “WWE Raw.”

Some fans were grumpy that the match was shunted from last week’s Netflix premiere to make way for more cameos. But we shouldn’t let that distract from the moment: Not only was this a big win for Valkyria, who looked every inch the champion, it was also another stride forward for the WWE’s women’s division, which is finally giving flowers to its mid-card talent.

As well as Valkyria herself, the likes of Michin, Chelsea Green, Piper Niven, Dakota Kai, Zoey Stark and Candice LeRae have been instrumental in raising the standard on WWE's weekly shows over recent years.

If you’ve forgotten just how far we’ve come, wind the clock back to the 2022 Royal Rumble. While no one would argue that the PLE was a classic, one of its less discussed shortcomings is the lack of full-time talent in the women’s Rumble match. Looking back through the names involved — Summer Rae, The Bella Twins, Cameron — the match owed more to “Total Divas” (a show which had finished three years earlier) than it did to the NXT development system. Not exactly a vote of confidence in the future, was it?

What a difference three years can make.

Now, not only does the WWE have enough women’s talent to fill out a Rumble match with names to spare, the promotion even had to create two new titles to accommodate it all — the Women’s US Championship and the Women’s Intercontinental Championship.

No one embodies that shift more than Valkyria. Since getting the call-up to "WWE Raw," she’s established herself as one of the promotion's more dependable talents. Until Monday night, her reward was to end up as the “almost” candidate in the big events. She was the runner-up at Queen of the Ring as well as Money in the Bank, and came within a whisker of becoming the No. 1 contender for the Women’s World Championship back in November. But now? All of that work has finally paid off.

It’s a slightly different story for US Champion Chelsea Green, who rose from being the joke entrant in the 2023 Rumble — a role she played with aplomb — into being one of the most popular women on “WWE SmackDown.”

The comedy stuff comes naturally to her, but let’s not overlook the quality of her in-ring work. The teamwork with Piper Niven; the crafty finishes; stepping up to the plate to make Jade Cargill look absolutely terrifying — and that’s before we get to that table bump back at Money in the Bank.

By the time the US Championship tournament came around, Green was a solid frontrunner to take the big prize. She put on an excellent match with Michin in the final, lighting up what was otherwise a pretty dull Saturday Night’s Main Event revival.

Then there’s Candice LeRae. Sure, she’s been impressive on “WWE SmackDown” in the whole Nia Jax storyline — playing the role of the wicked stepsister to Tiffany Stratton’s Cinderella — but she’s also been a show-stealer as Women’s Speed Champion on social media.

I admit to initially being skeptical about the whole “WWE Speed” concept (which airs exclusively on Elon Musk’s X). More exposure for wrestling is always welcome, but I couldn’t foresee what the whole five minute time-limit stipulation would add to the picture.

Enter LeRae, who’s done a masterful job of answering that question. Look at her title defense this past week against Natalya. With just under a minute to go, the Canadian superstar caught the champ in the sharpshooter. As LeRae tried desperately to hold on, the crowd began to count down with the clock like it was a Royal Rumble timer.

That’s a pretty impressive reaction, given these matches are recorded before the weekly shows, when audiences can sometimes be as quiet as dormice.

The women’s division might be on fire, but it’s up to WWE to make sure that kindling continues to smolder. There are still plenty of questions ahead, and that’s before we even get to the matter of the next round of NXT promotions — Roxanne Perez and Kelani Jordan look ripe for a call-up; it will be up to the powers that be to make sure the championship duo has something to do once they get there.

But Valkyria, Green and LeRae have shown why WWE was right to invest in these mid-card titles (which weren't without risks) in the first place. The big test now will be whether the promotion can keep this momentum going in the medium term.

That means investing in storylines, finding suitable challengers and making the fans feel like these belts deserve a place on the big PLEs from time-to-time like the men's titles do.

The talent is clearly there. Now it's up to WWE to make the most of it.