Yes, you have to be Roger level to be clearly above Rayleigh. Why would current Shanks be above Rayleigh when Rayleigh is basically the current Shanks with two arms? Shanks doesn't have any hype or portrayal of Rayleigh. If Oden could kill Kaido, so can Rayleigh. Rayleigh has top-tier swordsmanship, top-tier Haki stats, and speeds to react to the fastest character in the series. I don't see why he's any less than Shanks or even Kaido for that matter.
Yeah i can agree with this :
WB/Roger/Xebec/Garp are clearly above Ray
But you can be similar level and still be weaker than someone.
WsW is clearly the strongest Tobi Roppo (except Drake), with the others being same level yet Black Maria and Sasaki or Ulti arent equal.
It's the same here.
2 hands Shanks would have been clearly above Ray.
And Current Shanks, Mihawk and Prime Ray are in the same area of power.
Yet for me Shanks has more going for him. It would be real close but I still favor Shanks.
Both have insane COC but i think Shanks COC has been more highlighted than Ray.
Both are really close to Luffy and helped him in his path but i think Shanks is the more important of the two for Luffy. They are sharing something more.
The straw hat.
Shanks being more important to the plot, BB, MF, being a Yonko etc etc.
etc etc etc
For me Current Shanks is above prime Ray.
About Kaido :
59y Kaido > prime Ray > 39y kaido ~ 39y Oden
Wano kaido isn't the same as he was during his fight with Oden. 20 years gap and he clearly became stronger.
Ray like Mihawk would give a hell of a fight to Kaido, but would lose.