User blog comment:R. Lawton/How strong are some the GMG characters in comparison to Fairy Tail/@comment-3424593-20130911002038

Supposedly, having your Second Origin released equals to about 3 months of training. So, if it only took 3 months of training to be able to surpass them, then the FT members are still stronger.

For example, Gajeel only trained for 3 months, yet he is about twice as strong as Rogue, and the same can be said about Natsy. Meaning that 18 year-old Gajeel and Natsu from before the Timeskip would've still been stronger than X791 Sting and Rogue if 3 more months had gone by.

I don't know if I'm getting my point across or not, but that's my opinion. :) oh and there's also the whole plot armor reason that Rai and NNN are talking about