Which Axis battleships could challenge Nelson and Rodney?

Which modern Axis warships posed a major surface threat to Britain, and which would willingly fight Nelson or Rodney?

Most German and Italian capital ships would avoid the Nelson class; Yamato and Musashi are the Axis battleships best suited to that fight.

The answer distinguishes a ship that can threaten commerce from one willing to fight a heavily armed British battleship. Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were dangerous but operated under orders to avoid damage and had already withdrawn from Renown. Italy's four modernized First World War battleships could trouble an R-class ship, yet the assessment does not favour them against a modernized Queen Elizabeth, King George V, Nelson, or Rodney. Only Yamato and Musashi are judged to possess the protection and firepower that would make a deliberate engagement with the Nelson class attractive.