Here is the short update: New starter installed, that was the problem, it runs great.
Here is the long update: Brought the other "new" one back to Oreillys and the guy let me go to watch him test it, he put it on their machine, and when it activated the starter you could damned near count the teeth moving on the starter. Fricken POS was so slow and really struggling to rotate.
So, I got their lifetime warranty starter. Before I bought it he said "lets go test this one too" so he hooked it up and when it activated holy crap did it take off like it should have. So back to the counter, and he treated me well with a price break too, and he took the other new reman starter as the core.
To all of you that replied on here, thank you so much for some guidance on this. I am not made of money, so to talk (or type in our case!) all this out to help me double-triple check other avenues first I really do appreciate.
Thanks again everyone!