The old password did not work on the old appleid.
So, I took a sledgehammer where a simple tool should have done the trick.
Luckily, I have my own website and could create the old email again so I could get it verified (when I changed the appleid back to the original so I could sign out of all of my devices). I then verified this old email/appleid, signed out of all devices successfully and then changed the appleid to the new id again.
I have used my apple ID since it was introduced in the 90's and after so many years, I needed to delete that old email because I had 100 spam emails per hour on it.
The point I was trying to make was that Apple should 1) program an appleid change so that on other devices you can log into the new one without signing out of the old one (that no longer exists) and 2) before they allow you to change your appleid instruct you to sign out of all devices before proceeding. Having to find instructions for this after the fact is silly and sometimes people can't recreate a deleted email account. I was lucky.
Thanks for the advice. Hopefully, others will be able to look at your list and make it happen.