Ok for anyone having the same issue I thought I'd come back and tell you how I solved the issue.
All previous attempts at flashing sbf were done using Ubuntu and sbf_flash in the terminal. I never got errors flashing this way but it was the only consistent difference between others success and my failure. I could never get RSD lite to recognize the droid on my laptop. I broke out an old XPsp3 desktop and installed RSD lite and the motorola drivers. I flashed VRZ_A956_2.4.33_1FF_01.sbf and followed the rest of the steps listed. It worked!! The ONLY thing I did different was using RSD and not sbf_flash in Ubuntu. I could tell when using the Magic Mike iso because it went differently than any other time before.
Only strange thing is my signal bars. On the stock ROM I get 1 bar, yet my call quality is not 1 bar quality, more like 3 bars. I can live with it!