stuff like this is too hard to debate.......cause one of the lamest details ever mentioned in the naruto series relates to this.......
and that is when gaara said that for the past 6 years, the kazekage has sent assassins to try to kill him

while its deep and all.....this leads me to believe that gaara > any sand jounin
however from what we saw of gai stopping gaara's sand......he could easily take gaara out in the blink of an eye in his normal form. Does this mean that a konoha jounin > all sand jounins?

then again, we know gaara has transformed into shukaku before......simply because temari and kankuro and well, pretty much all the sand village knows that he can. this would lead me to believe that maybe some sand jounins ARE capable of taking out gaara, thus forcing gaara to transform......in which case they get pwned

now considering the amount of trouble that 3 headed snake summoned caused for all the nins in konoha, i'd say that only a sannin, hokage, or naruto actually had any chance of beating fully transformed gaara

simply because nobody else could summon a creature or call upon a demon big enough to aid in the fight
i guess if this is the case, then i take back the part about the detail being lame. but ONLY if this is the case