Years ago, I lived in South Florida and the St Augustine grass needed mowing twice a week during the rainy seasons. It probably shot up 1 1/2 - 2 inches per day. Many of the lawns ended up elevated 6 inches above the sidewalk with all the buildup.
I doubt if any other mower would handle mulching better than your Toro. Clean the wet grass from underneath the deck and install a new blade. Use the exact blade specified for your mower. You will need to cut more frequently or consider bagging.

so what's the best economical mulching mower right now? i'm not going to spend $1000 on a honda, i'll buy a professional mower for $3k before I spend $1k on a push, however I like the exercise I get walking around the yard so what now?

You have conflicting goals. You want a mower that far exceeds the mulching performance of your old mower but you want an economically priced mower at the same time.

Just get a new model Toro Super Recycler 20092. It will mulch or bag much better than your older machine and it uses the Personal Pace drive system which is a much better drive system than the old multi speed geared transmssion. Please realize that a new mower no matter the brand will feel and operate differently than the old machine so there will be a learning curve.