SELECT LTRIM(RTRIM(REPLACE(REPLACE(REPLACE(@String, '<', ' '), '>', ''), '|', ' ')))

This too,

WITH cte AS (

SELECT a.LabelCode,

b.NAME,

RANK() OVER(PARTITION BY a.ITEMID ORDER BY b.NAME DESC) AS Ranking

FROM ITEM a JOIN AltNames b ON b.RECID = a.RECID)

SELECT * FROM cte...